I awakened late this morning after an unusually restful sleep. The lethargy didn’t however stop me getting on my bike before noon. Nor had the middling urgency prevented me from having a fulfilling breakfast. I finally spread Marmite yeast extract on my Epic Everything bagel. I’m not saying it out-did the Teddie All Natural Smooth Unsalted peanut butter but it at least fulfilled an ambition.

Today and tomorrow are forecasted to have a maximum temperature not exceeding 70 degrees. Combined with a northern wind and a crystal blue sky this qualifies as fresh. The view is however nonpareil. I especially enjoy the scan of the Gulf of Mexico as I approach Block 4000 on my bicycle. The island is extremely narrow at that point and as a result affords a panoramic view of the sea over the tops of the grape bushes sheltering the sand dunes.

All-right, all-right, all-right! There are missing details to be addressed. I admit I deliberately swept them under the carpet – what I mistakenly thought (though quite unwittingly) were the insignificant subterfuges attending the workaday conventions on Longboat Key. On reflection I concede that in the interest of framing an unabridged picture of this otherwise overwhelmingly inspired resort the prosaic information (though patently lifeless by any standard) is nonetheless critical. The supplement is in no way intended to diminish the unassailed enchantment of the island. By contrast my hope is that these plausibly tiresome particles will embellish the whole.

To this moment – as I sit before my computer approaching the conclusion of the day after having enjoyed my evening meal of bow tie pasta and sautéed raw veggies with fresh Parmigiano Reggiano cheese – I cannot account for how I endured today’s unplanned and protracted 31.19 km bicycle ride almost the full length of the Gulf of Mexico Drive along the spine of Longboat Key to the bridge leading to Bradenton Beach and back. Normally the comfortable limit of my daily cycle is the 16 km to Bayfront Park and back. Even today’s lengthy adventure included the ritual stop at the Park on the bench overlooking Sarasota Bay. Nor to my continuing surprise did I linger there longer than usual in spite of the duplication of the length of my ride.

As a student of philosophy and law, and as a practicing lawyer for about 40 years (focussing primarily upon the administration of estates and the perpetuation of wealth) I am well positioned not any more than anyone else to comprehend the importance of living but rather to advance the pragmatism of living. Like it or not life requires thinking and application – and dealing with realities. The scope is far more than a distinction without a difference – the disparity between knowing you should do something and understanding how and why. Of the three certainties in this universe – namely birth, death and life – only the latter is within your own domain and – most tellingly – within your choice and influence.

The invitation of magnanimity or beneficence comes with a cost. That much is understood. It is also accepted that such purposeful ambition is normally directed at those from whom a favourable response is likely or expected – either because of a pre-existing contractual association (sometimes called the “consideration” for the promise – that is, “the price for the goods“), the intimacy of the relationship or because of the weight of some prior arrangement (commonly called a “quid pro quo” – “this for that” or less charitably outright barter as in “tit for tat” or even less desirably as “one hand washes the other” – but no longer archaically as a pharmaceutical substitute). What however isn’t so readily apparent is the subterfuge which may surround it. It is this peculiarly nefarious character which contaminates and may even impede the requested generosity.

The cold north wind has been howling relentlessly all day – though the azure sky was with equal tenacity cloudless and crystal clear. The high pressure created an uplifting and incomparable atmosphere. There were few people walking and cycling along the path this morning. Presumably they were less adventurous during this bracing period. A number of people were drawn – as was I – to the beach to look at the high waves and the glittering sunshine on the white sand and turquoise sea.

After a remorselessly sleepless night, having been up and down literally every hour on the hour at ten o’clock, eleven o’clock, midnight, one o’clock and two o’clock, I hadn’t the least expectation this morning when at last I awoke from an undisturbed four-hour sleep that there would be anything of a singular nature today. It may have counted as a signal of novelty that I diminished the customary size of my steel cut oats to one-quarter cup instead of half; or that I began my breakfast with a Sumo orange instead of a green apple. But I wasn’t prepared for anything outrageously different. I still had my poisonous antidote of walnuts and maple syrup. The invariability of my morning was only fortified by the plainness of my bicycle ride. The world – though unprovocative – appeared mundane to a fault. The sidewalk was characteristically flat and uniform.

Recently we met our neighbours George and Bobbie from Maine. We are all of an age. They kindly invited us to breakfast with them at their place this morning. The day began under gloomy weather – in addition to bearing the reserve befitting a Sunday – all of which suited me well. Otherwise I might have resented missing a moment of sunshine or my constitutional morning bicycle ride (a deprivation I happily endured because I recognize the need for a break from my exercise routine which is beginning to affect me adversely).

There’s something decidedly authentic about a swim in the sea. Its irrepressible allure is even more magnetic when the source is practically at one’s door. In the middle of January on Longboat Key the ambient temperature is comfortable – which is to say the sea water is not exactly like soup. Thus in spite of the blue sky and yellow sunshine today I hadn’t initially been consumed by the undying necessity to walk among the sea grasses and fine white sand to approach the Gulf of Mexico unannounced so to speak.