Yesterday my latest royalty check arrived; it netted out at $8.80. My kids and I used to call it "McDonald's Money" because that was all it was ever much good for.
Still, it seems remarkable that I still get royalties from a movie that came out about 40 years ago, when I was still a very young man.
Forty years. Twenty years. Ten years. These markers of time acquire different significance with age. What used to sound like a long, long time turns out to have evaporated just like that -- whoosh!
On the other hand, when you are waiting for something important, or special or scary to happen, time inches forward as if it were pushed back by a strong head wind.
I suppose I was waiting for something to happen when I was a boy but I didn't know it. Then stuff started to happen over and over again. Good stuff, bad stuff; happy stuff, sad stuff.
Over many decades I just lived life as it came to me or as I found it; barely conscious that time was passing. My time was passing.
Now that time has really slowed down, and it is clear that only a finite amount is left, I wait. But for what? That's another of those questions that has no answer.
***
Overnight, a few news items caught my eye:
* College football is a treasured fall tradition for millions of Americans, but the decision by some schools to press ahead with games — even as classrooms are closed to students and teachers amid the pandemic — is “misguided and dangerous,” according to a NYT opinion piece. Unpaid student athletes do not fit into the category of essential workers for merely entertaining fans. Schools, coaches, and television networks arguing games should irrepressibly continue as scheduled are placing their hunger for lucrative profits ahead of the consideration of their volunteer players' health and safety, the paper’s editorial contends. (LinkedIn)
* As confrontations between armed groups and protesters turn deadly, police face complaints of tolerating vigilantes--At times, police have appeared to offer support to conservative groups that take up arms against protests that have occasionally spawned violence, vandalism and looting. (Washington Post)
* Over 100,000 seniors have died from Covid-19. Over half of all fatalities are among older Americans. (CDC)
* Minnesota Could Be The Next Midwestern State To Go Red -- Republicans continue to gain among white voters without college educations. (538)
* Trump refuses to denounce violent actions by right-wing agitators (CNN)
* Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that she’s worried about America “descending into a race war.” (Daily Caller)
* Vice President Mike Pence was put on standby to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency during President Donald Trump's unannounced visit to Walter Reed hospital in November 2019, according to a copy of New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt's forthcoming book obtained by CNN.
* People Line Up In Record Numbers At Alameda Co. Food Bank In COVID-19 Economy (CBS)
* Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Tuesday blasted the "failure of leadership" in America's coronavirus response and warned of more hardship to come unless dramatic steps are taken to crush the virus. "People have died unnecessarily because government was slow to react to common and simple things like mask wearing and social distancing," Schmidt said during a podcast. (CNN)
***
In personal news, my Covid test results came back negative so we are going ahead with eye surgery later this morning.
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day and through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children's carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you
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