Sitting at my desk this evening after another of my partner’s incomparably gratifying and balanced meals, overlooking the endlessly magificient view of the burgeoning country fields and placid upriver aspect, I am complascently reminded of the tolerable straits. Apart from the personal patina of ¾ a century, it constitutes an exceedingly pretty picture.

While I may have been “ridden hard and put away wet” (as my late friend Nicholas Magus so frequently quipped of those whom he admired), I have in this manner achieved a heightened regard of the world. That is, the performance has been by any account a conjunction of pluck and luck. Seldom could I have authentically characterized my evolution from childhood to adulthood as anything other than serendipitous. It is the same fortuity which has enabled me to dispel and depart the unwelcome or superfluous ingredients of my past. What remains is admittedly refined but limited. But it is this finite element which affords me the capacity to relive what worthwhile attachments persist to the material world. Complication would only have amounted to excess and commensurate dilution. Now by contrast I meaningfully digest the extraordinary marque of the millefiori; the paintings which have been so dear to me; even the unsurpassable red roses from Walmart costing $1.50 each. I recall to this day the animation of each of their discovery like gems in the sand.

Naturally there is an unspoken adherence of my internal combustion with the pyschiatric, emotional and intellectual upheaval of existence. My history is one of transformation from debate, experiment, inadvertence and unwitting coalition to the now predominantly private percolation of thoughts, memories and conclusions. The acute model has forever been a favourite of mine. Curiously perhaps I have combined shrewdness with diversity. The breadth of my appetite may thus be both coarse and wholesome, permitting unbounded pleasure.

But extractions prevail. Revolution surrounds the evolution. Though I wouldn’t say the process has been a forcible overthrow, it has been intentional. Once again I am indebted to the quiet wisdom of my partner to abbreviate these imperatives. The example of unquelled determination and sensible deductionis manifest and instructive.