On Thursday the excitement around home was when a film crew stopped by to interview me about people and events from a time long ago. At one point they wanted to get some footage of me sitting at a table writing my daily essay.
They also asked my ten-year-old granddaughter to hover over my shoulder and watch me type.
She is a little shy, but not overly so, so she agreed. As she held the pose, I wrote the first words that popped into my mind. None of it was planned. Those words turned out to be the conversation I would like to have with her about life if we were ever to do that.
Here is what I wrote:
"So the most important thing I could ever say to you while you are still young is don't waste it. Don't waste it because it won't come around again.
"This sounds like a cliche and of course it is. But not all cliches are dumb.
"Double digits (your age) ... they only start once. If you live long enough you may make triple digits. But that is only for the chosen few so my advice is to treasure the two-digit stretch as long as you can, from age ten to ninety nine.
"Pace yourself. Life is way shorter than we'd ultimately like it to be. Most people live at high speed and ignore the stops. But the rest stops are special in their own way. They are when you can breathe, reflect.
"And look up and see where you are going.
"What else? Maybe just this: Each and every one of us is special in our own way...So live your life as if it really matters! Follow your passion. Don't settle for less. Your dreams may or may not come true but they definitely won't come true if you don't try..."
***
At about this point the director called "Cut" and it was a wrap. The crew took Sophia to another room to sign the standard release form in case they use her image in the upcoming documentary.
She came back and brought the form to me to sign. "Just put down that you are my Grandpa."
"Thanks for helping out with this, Sophia, and welcome to Hollywood," I told her. "What was it like for you?"
"Well I tried to stay still and look serious as long as I could. But I was reading what you wrote and I just had to smile. So I did. And then the man said 'cut'."
Of course she is too young to know it yet but the moment she smiled was the one he was waiting for. And I'm sure if she's in the doc that will make the final cut.
***
One of the sad headlines catching my eye today is the wave of assassinations of Afghan pilots by the Taliban. In a poor society like Afghanistan, highly trained professionals like pilots are hard to develop and harder to retain.
For one thing they have to train overseas, where the working conditions and benefits are much better than back home, but the need is much greater there. Fifty years ago, when I lived in Afghanistan, there were only a handful of commercial pilots in the country and only a few aged planes for them to fly on domestic routes.
I knew one of these guys, named Omar, and on occasion he would invite me into the cockpit as he piloted our flight over the mighty Hindu Kush from Kabul to the north, probably to Mazar-i-Sharif or Kunduz.
It was a two-engine plane and as we sailed not very far above the jagged snow-covered peaks, it felt like we were on the edge of heaven. I asked Omar what would happen if one of the engines should fail.
"That would be it for us," he answered. "There is nowhere down there for us to land. Allahu Akbar. (God is Great)."
For heaven's sake, why are the Taliban killing the society's few pilots? Probably to cripple the government's military capacity as they proceed to take over the country and send it back to the Stone Age.
God save the Afghan people from themselves. God save Afghan women from these frightful misogynists.
***
THE HEADLINES:
* Is This the End of Summer as We’ve Known It? -- Wildfires. Drought. Monsoons. Sewage spills. A resurgent virus. The summer season we thought we knew has become something ominous. (NYT)
* Climate Change Is Driving Deadly Weather Disasters From Arizona To Mumbai (NPR)
* A new video is highlighting the devastating effect of recent heat waves on Pacific Northwest salmon, which are suffering from lesions and fungus due to rising water temperatures, according to a nonprofit organization. Unusually warm temperatures have already been blamed for mass salmon deaths and illness. [HuffPost]
* A nearly empty water reservoir, increasing temperatures in the Sierra Nevada and dry winters are leaving Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) residents to endure one of the worst droughts in modern history. (KQED)
* Survivors of California’s deadliest wildfire feel haunted as new blaze nears: ‘I can’t do it again’ (WP)
* ‘The war has changed’: Internal CDC document urges new messaging, warns delta infections likely more severe (WP)
* Pandemic Aid Programs Spur a Record Drop in Poverty -- The most comprehensive study yet of the federal response to the pandemic shows huge but temporary benefits for the poor — and helps frame a larger debate over the role of government. (NYT)
* New York City Offers $100 Incentive to Get Vaccinated (AP)
* 8 Lasting Changes Experts Think We'll See In Kids After This 'Lost' Year (HuffPost)
* Wearing Masks Indoors Again? Some States Are a Vehement No. -- After the C.D.C. advised masking indoors in areas with high rates of Covid-19, some locales went back under mask mandates. But there was also defiance and hostility. (NYT)
* CDC reversal on indoor masking prompts experts to ask: Where’s the data? (WP)
* Citing New Data, Pfizer Outlines Case for Booster Shots -- Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine may become slightly weaker over time, the company reported. But experts said that most people won’t need boosters anytime soon. (NYT)
* On the advice of the congressional physician, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reinstated a mask mandate for House lawmakers and staff amid the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. House Republicans responded with fighting and yelling, with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), trying and failing to get the House to adjourn for the day on Wednesday because he didn't want to wear a mask. [HuffPost]
* In the Capitol, Revival of Mask Mandate Ignites Partisan Recriminations (NYT)
* U.S. Economy Grew Past Pre-Pandemic Level, but Variant Clouds Outlook (WSJ)
* Biden wants U.S automakers to pledge 40% electric vehicles by 2030 -sources (Reuters)
Of five or six or seven
I can't resist a joyous urge
To smile and say
Thank heaven for little girls
For little girls get
Bigger every day
Thank heaven for little girls
They grow up in
The most delightful way.
Those little eyes
So helpless and appealing
When they were flashing
Send you crashing
Through the ceiling
Thank heaven for little girls
Thank heaven for them all
No matter where,
No matter who
Without them
What would little boys do
Thank heaven
Thank heaven
Thank heaven for little girls.
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