One Small Plant

I used to have lots of plants that I cared for and watered and kept in the sunlight.

Now I have this one -- a succulent. It sits on the ledge in my back porch, where it catches the maximum sun in the second half of a day. (When we have any sun, that is. Lately there has been little.) Today I watered it using my favorite coffee cup -- a Giants cup one of my kids gave me.

I hope the small residue of coffee among the water didn't disturb my plant. I drink very little coffee -- about half a cup four days a week, max.

When I was still young enough to have fantasies and dreams of the future, I used to imagine I would live in a place like Napa or Sonoma, with acres of land planted with crops -- maybe grapes but also others.

And most definitely a vegetable garden and fruit trees.

There is something deeply satisfying about growing food crops and also beautiful things, like this little plant. Since I got it, it has at least tripled in size. I imagine I will eventually replant it in the backyard.

Back to my fantasy: I imagined there would be a house, where my wife and children lived and played, and a small building out back, where I would write during the day, returning to them at night. I thought I would write books, great books hopefully.

I'm not sure when, but at some point my fantasy died. I realized I would never be wealthy or lucky enough to live a life like that. I'm just fortunate, due to the rent control, to live out my years in a shabby, inner-city apartment. And to work in a media company well past the age my father or grandfather retired.

My Scottish grandfather reached an age, maybe about mine, when he refused to pay any further taxes. He just stopped filing, saying he had paid enough. I do not know whether his income at that point -- probably social security -- was large enough that he owed any anyway.

But he made his statement.

I know how he felt. I mailed in my taxes yesterday -- thousands of dollars. I wonder what the government would do to an old man like me if I decided to stop paying all of that money out. I would rather give it to my children and grandchildren.

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