1. Debbie and I will be going on a Thursday/Friday trip in just under three weeks, exploring New York outside of and beyond NYC and its suburbs. Debbie is making our plans and I'm happy to report that she is looking at hikes for us to go on, possibly including waterfalls. I've been trying to remember the last time Debbie and I hiked together. I really can't -- was it that day many years ago when we hiked the McKenzie River Trail one day after church? It doesn't really matter -- what matter is that I'm stoked to join Debbie, see the countryside, hit a trail or two, and visit some wineries and breweries with Gibbs right along with us.
2. Christy and I asked Carol to make a request for Mother's Day dinner. She wants to experience the flavors of the Middle East, with the a fish dish as the main entree. Putting this little feast together has required some planning. Today I double checked the recipes I'll follow and made a list of groceries to go buy in Coeur d'Alene. I'm going to break with my usual habit of trying to make whatever I can find at Yoke's work. I want to look over the fish offerings in CdA and I just thought it would be fun to go to Pilgrim's Market, possibly to Fred Meyer, and no doubt to Fisherman's Market and check out fish, produce, wine, and, apart from dinner, look at cider selections.
3. I also did some planning today for the blabbing I'll do on Sunday with our Zoom group about the literary genre of comedy. I have a plan and to reinforce my thinking and feeling about stories of transformation and joy, tonight I thoroughly enjoyed watching the 1996 original Japanese version of the movie, Shall We Dance? I hadn't seen this movie since the summer of 1997, back when Debbie and I were getting acquainted by writing many, many emails back and forth to each other. Shall We Dance? was playing at the Bijou Art Cinema and, in one of her emails, Debbie asked me if I'd seen it. I hadn't, but went to the movie right away and I loved it. I wish I could remember what Debbie and I wrote back and forth about the movie, but I've forgotten.
The movie stayed with me, though, for these last twenty-four years, especially when, on occasion, I taught the Literature of Comedy course at LCC and as I began, about 10-15 years ago, to pay special attention to movies about characters who had died or were dead inside and came to life again. Such transformation is at the heart of Shall We Dance?, not only for the character the story is primarily about, but for other characters, too. It was a joy in 1997 and an even greater joy tonight to watch how entering into the emotional dimensions of ballroom dancing, not just the physical techniques, helps a variety of characters blossom into being more fully human, full of vitality, delight, wonder, and vibrant love of various kinds.
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