Day 48: Gravy days

I just came across a line in a book by NPR reporter Eric Weiner titled "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World." At this point in the book he's been interviewing people in Slough, England, generally considered to be one of Earth's unhappier places (though apparently not nearly as unhappy as Moldova).

Weiner comes to the conclusion that when you reach a certain point in your life -- say, middle age -- every day you're given is pure gravy. You wake up in the morning and get another shot at getting it right, at finding happiness. Pure gravy.

I read this just hours after I'd read about the death of yet another high school classmate. That makes four that I know of this year -- four out of the 200 or so of us who made up the Class of '68. We are, it seems, dropping like flies.

But I'm still here and feeling especially grateful to be. Grateful for these gravy days.