web of life

Leslie F. Miller

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”
—William Shakespeare

It was a tossup, of course, because Sir Walter Scott said it
just as well: "Oh what a tangled web we weave / When first
we practise to deceive!" And that's appropriate now, since my
book is about to hit the stores. Nonfiction is supposed to be
true. All true. I think about those people who've written hoax
books or exaggerated or lied about their experiences. I did
none of that. Except for the part where the cake talks. I hope
most people will recognize that as a literary device and not
a lie.

But Shakespeare's quote is more appropriate. My life lately
has been that mingled yarn. The back, the book, the back.

At my desk through it all were pencil and pen. Even the yarn—
a warming element this winter, as it warmed me in my lap and
went on to warm the necks of friends—spent a great deal of
time by my side.

Today, a photographer from the Baltimore Sun came by
to do a shoot for a short piece by Rob Kasper in the April 1
paper, and I decided it was time to do something for Utata
again. Her Nikon D700 sure looked delicious.

I'm still prone to bouts of leftover sad and inertia, but I managed
to take care of two bits of business yesterday—I prepared my
taxes for the accountant, and I scheduled two urgent medical
appointments.

Today I felt good after therapy and smiled quite a bit to no one
in particular. I mailed an apology to one of the people (I hope
not one of many) whose name I misspelled in the book.

Oh, yes. The mingled yarn of my life. I am grateful that it is
no longer mostly bad.

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