May be our last day here on the edge of the Americas .... waking each morning to the Ocean .... It's been many a thinker, but most recently Leon Kass after writing his lengthy volume on the Book of Genesis, The Beginning of Wisdom, who went about hither and yon speaking to audiences about the value of mortality ... carrying on a tradition amongst all the great religions that one should live each day -- whether in the Second, Third or Fourth Quarters -- as if it was your last. Indeed, one should meet each person as if it was the last time you'd meet them ... do each task as if it is your last opportunity to finally carry it out or to carry it out, again, with grace. The word grace must share its origins with the word gratitude ... two sides of a coin. The grandkids ... the half that came, this year ... will be leaving tonight and M and I will leave tomorrow. The prophets are predicting major storms that will arrive to conquer the heat that has had its grasp on the East Coast. Maybe next year all the grandspawn will visit ... maybe if I stop calling them 'spawn,' more will come. Nah! The grandkids know we love them. M and I will be back, this Summer. This is the first time, I've decided to take all Fridays off in July and August beyond some weeks. Some of the visitors to my office are displeased. They call or -- how very modern -- text. I don't tweet, well not yet. It's hard for the to articulate the thought that they might miss me. Such a human experience ... missing another when they're absent ... betimes, when they're present and cannot quite be present. Oh! There are lovers embracing on an unoccupied lifeguard stand. I keep repeating in these notes how strongly I feel about hello's and goodbye's and their feeling relatives .... glee and sadness. There is an ebullience, however, that goes on in presence, as well ... maybe even harder to own. To be open to hello, presence and goodbye ... Is there more?