Small bothers fall away one by one, including a black nail polish stain.

Click to enlarge: Top: Black fingernail polish stain on Clarence's couch Bottom: Dee Dee next to black fingernail polish stain on Clarence's couch

I don’t recall where I read it, but a writer remarked on an old couch stain that his daughter had made many years ago. He’d been angry and tried to remove it, but nothing worked. Now his daughter was grown up, and he looked at that stain differently. It was a reminder of the little girl that once played there.

When my father began to succumb to cancer, I saw small bothers fall away one by one, until things that once irked him no end simply didn’t matter.

I decided then to start thinking that way while I’m healthy. And it’s not that hard once you get used to it. It makes all sorts of disappointments tolerable.

I may not remove that nail polish stain.

[2014-01-05]

 

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