Hi John,

Exquisite essay.

This is very timely for me. For the past three nights, I've had disturbing dreams I've been glad to wake up from, all on the theme of needing to be somewhere with something at a certain time but not being able to find the thing or even get dressed without being late, and being unable to communicate with the person who needs the thing. I relate this to the recent retirement of my friend and boss of 10 years, and a generalized feeling that some other transitions are about to happen. I'm 61 and my husband is 71 so we're not that old but we're not getting any younger and many of the people we grew up with are leaving in one way or another now.