"Chirpy, Old Bean!"

Stumbled out of bed this morning into the gray. Walked like a dead-man to the kitchen, mumbling, 'coffee, coffee.' Yes, William Blake's 'energy is eternal delight,' is the key mantra imprinted into my cell structure, but sometimes energy is 'out there,' to be mysteriously, magically, released by brewing up the little black coffee bean. A cup or two of the exquisite mud, re-lights the pilot light, and I'm ready to take the controls and fly into the jaws of a new day.

Carla is in New York. On the phone last night she passed on many amazing facts about the tsunami: time has shortened by three minutes, the planet wobbled slightly, the circumference of the the planet has condensed?! N.Y. is all for 'healing the planet.' I could almost feel the energy of N.Y. (it is another world) coming at me through my cell phone! The midwest seems a little slower, a little grayer, but yes, I want to heal the planet too!

This morning, David Niven, famous actor, raconteur is a stand-in for the Buddha: 'well, old bean, life is really so bloody awful that I feel it's my absolute duty to be chirpy.'

OK, David, I agree, chirpy, indeed, old bean.