Self-portrait. Throwing a party.

  I saw this stand at the Red Fox Book Shop in Glens Falls the other night and it reminded me of
me. Only with more hair.
  This is an interesting weekend for me. Maria and I have decided to plan a party – the first of our lives. I never thought to give a party before, and I never quite got the idea of it. Lots of small talk with strangers, and I always got uncomfortable. But I think it’s a good idea. A coming out, in a way, a celebration of the good and small things in life. I heard an author on the radio the other day. She has written a book decrying the move towards positive thinking, reminding us – as writers and journalists often do – that there are grim things in life and there is no way to dress them up with a positive spin.
  True, but I think we all know that. The challenge is to find the positive things amidst the grim, and value them while we can. What we often need to be reminded of, it seems to me, is to be conscious of the things we love and value. You might call that positive thinking, but I don’t. We make our own news.
 I wish her luck on her book, though. She may have a lonely book tour.
 So I think I am going to throw a party and invite all of the nice people I know, or as many of them as I can reach, and get them over to the farm, for a celebration of life – mine with Maria, theirs.
  All of ours.