"Someone told me once that if you're really into somebody you should just go over and tell them. I guess that's what I'm doing." -- Bianca Piper (The DUFF)
Late the other night I was alone in the living room inside my headphones, lost in the blues, so I didn't notice my grandson come out from his bedroom and go into the kitchen.
By the time I was aware of him, he had brewed himself some tea, added sweetener and cream, and placed his mug on a wooden serving tray with handles.
Next, he gathered pistachios, dried cranberries, an apple, some chips, cheese, crackers, and a couple of spicy meat sticks and carried the whole collection out to the living room. There, he set the tray down on the large coffee table between the couch and the chair where I was sitting.
I've known this young fellow his whole life, obviously, and we've lived together for the past year and a half, so we can pretty well sense what is going on with each other with just a glance.
Some nights, I know he doesn't want to talk, he just wants to be over in the living room instead of his bedroom. On those night, he eventually pulls a pillow to the end of the couch, wraps himself in a blanket, and goes to sleep without saying a word.
When that happens, if it is a chilly night, after I'm sure he is deep in sleep, I add another blanket on top of him and turn off the lights before retiring to my bedroom for the night.
But on this particular night he looked over at me and indicated the food tray.
"Want some?"
I removed my headphones, closed my laptop, got up and over to the chair nearer the couch.
As we munched the snacks, he started to tell me things he's been thinking about lately. I'm not going to be able to do our conversation justice here because it went on for a very long time and I only have a short space left to fill.
"I like to think about the big questions, Grandpa, like why the universe keeps expanding," he started. "I don't know what I want to study in college or what I want to be, but it will have to be something that let's me keep doing that."
He was rambling in his charming way, with a serious expression that belies his age, which is 13. He has tousled blond hair, freckles, and blue eyes that are a window to his soul. I listened and nodded, mostly staying silent as I cracked and ate the pistachios.
Finally he asked, "What do you think black holes are?"
I thought for a moment before answering. Physics is not exactly my long suit. Plus when speaking with one's grandchild one doesn't want to get something important wrong, unless you're telling a fish story.
(This wasn't the time for a fish story.)
"Maybe," I started out hesitantly, "black holes are the opposite of the universe's expansion. Maybe they are what happens when pieces of the universe turn around and go backward, like collapsing inward, you know, sucking all the energy back in, undoing what was done by the pushing outward, something like that. Maybe they are about turning inward, bringing everything back into balance."
"Maybe," he said. "Or maybe we can't know what they are, because they are beyond our comprehension. I'm thinking I want to be the type of person who tries to figure out questions like that."
"Well, it sounds like you may be interested in physics, " I ventured. "There are the laws of thermodynamics, there's quantum mechanics..."
(I knew I was reaching the outer limits of my knowledge base.)
"Maybe. But I don't want to be an astronomer or a physicist and it's not like I want to go out there myself, like an astronaut. It's more like I want to be part of the search for answers. There are other questions too, like what time is and how we fit into other forms of life we can't perceive."
As I said, I cannot do real justice to our conversation, which covered many, many other topics and went on until we were both blinking back our tiredness and yawning. By now it was 1 a.m., long beyond either of our bedtimes.
So I told him I really had to finish my essay, and I returned to my normal chair, put back on my headphones, opened up my laptop, and got to work.
He finished his tea, which by now was cold and padded off to his room.
A while later, I punched "publish," closed my laptop, doused the light, rose from the chair and shuffled to my bedroom and lower bunk where I sleep.
And in my dreams, I felt myself floating like a feather in the breeze -- a happy dream.
***
[PHOTO: My present to my grandson on his 13th birthday.]
***
THE HEADLINES:
* Lovely Weather Defined California. What Happens When It’s Gone? -- Summer in California was once heavenly. Now it’s hellish. (NYT)
* California wildfire smoke is moving toward the Bay Area. (SF Chronicle)
* Death Toll Rises in Algerian Wildfires (Reuters)
* Northwest heat wave: Focus on getting water to vulnerable (AP)
* The Biden administration asked the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to pump more oil to reduce gas prices in the U.S., which begs the question: Is President Joe Biden denying the reality of the global emissions crisis? The gas price flux shows us about why we should already be weaned off fossil fuels. [HuffPost]
* Dixie Fire Scorches Northern California (NYT)
* Italian wildfires rage on after 119.84 degree heat record (Reuters)
* Greek Island Is New Epicenter of Europe’s Summer of Calamity -- Evia was ravaged by wildfires this week, adding to the list of places that have fallen victim to extreme weather events made worse by climate change and scorching temperatures (NYT)
* Greek wildfires a major ecological catastrophe, PM says (AP)
* The Latest: San Francisco mandates vaccination if indoors (AP)
* F.D.A. to Authorize Third Vaccine Dose for People With Weak Immune Systems -- The decision to expand the emergency use of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is meant to help transplant recipients and others whose immune systems are similarly compromised. (NYT)
* An increasing number of school districts in Texas and Florida are defying their Republican governors' bans on mask mandates. The states are epicenters of the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus, and health officials have been alarmed about a surge in severe infections among children. [HuffPost]
* How COVID-19 laid bare America's diabetes crisis (Reuters)
* Texas Hospitals Are Already Overloaded. Doctors Are ‘Frightened by What Is Coming.’ (NYT)
* The federal government has sent hundreds of ventilators and other oxygen devices to the state of Florida following a request from local health officials as coronavirus cases and related hospitalizations continue to rise across the state. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told reporters he was unaware of health officials’ request and doubted it was true. [HuffPost]
* C.D.C. Recommends Covid Vaccines During Pregnancy -- New research shows the shots do not increase risk of miscarriage, the agency said, but the risks of severe disease from a coronavirus infection while pregnant are serious. (NYT)
* Oregon Reinstates Indoor Mask Mandate to Slow Delta Variant -- Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon said both vaccinated and unvaccinated people must wear masks again indoors starting on Friday. She warned that rising cases driven by the Delta variant could overrun hospitals in weeks. (AP)
* California orders all teachers to be vaccinated or face regular testing. (NYT)
* Republicans take to mask wars as virus surges in red states (AP)
* An improperly functioning Los Angeles sewage treatment plant has been impacting the region’s ability to recycle water for the past month. As a result, millions of gallons of clean drinking water have been diverted amid a worsening drought. (LAT)
* Bangladesh, Citing Economic Pain, Reopens Amid Worst Covid Wave Yet (NYT)
* Taliban poised to capture Afghan cities of Herat, Kandahar (Reuters)
* Biden administration tries to mobilize international diplomatic effort to halt Taliban (WP)
* U.S. Embassy in Kabul urges U.S. citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately (Reuters)
* Could the Taliban Take Over Afghanistan? Here’s What We Know. (NYT)
* U.S. to reduce Kabul embassy to core staff amid Taliban gains (Reuters)
* The Obama administration declared an end to combat in 2014, but U.S. troops kept fighting and dying, as detailed in this excerpt from Craig Whitlock’s book “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War.” (WP)
* Number of white people in U.S. fell for first time since 1790, new data shows (WP)
* Census release shows America is more diverse and more multiracial than ever (CNN)
* NSA quietly awards $10 billion cloud contract to Amazon, drawing protest from Microsoft (WP)
* Hochul Vows a Change in Tone as the Cuomo Era Nears an End in Albany -- In her first remarks since Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned, the lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, distanced herself from the governor and promised her office would not be “toxic.” (NYT)
* Higher but still slim odds of asteroid Bennu slamming Earth (AP)
* The Kids of Camp I Am, a Decade Later -- Campers from a pioneering retreat for gender-nonconforming children look back on what it taught them — and their journeys to becoming who they are. (Photographs by Lindsay Morris/NYT Mag)
* Because someone, somewhere, out there needs to see this: Please stop putting apple cider vinegar on your penis. It will not make your willy grow, no matter what the porn ads tell you. (HuffPost)
* Basketballs ultimately find their way into the ocean, resulting over the decades in dolphins’ three-point shooting percentage improving almost 27%. (The Onion)
***
"Can't Help Falling in Love"
Sung by Elvis Presley
Songwriters: George David Weiss / Hugo E. Peretti / Luigi Creatore
Only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you?
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you
For I can't help falling in love with you
-30-
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