PARTY & POLITICS

          Our first party invitation came from the wife of the Friends of the Library  president, who was throwing him a surprise 65^th birthday party. Their house is beautiful, right on the golf coarse, with lots of Asian art.  She had worked like a maniac, while her husband was out of town, to cook and hide food for the party.  A friend kept him at her house after their round of golf, plying him with more beers every time he attempted to go home.

          John and I spent the our first half-hour at the party chatting and eating passed hors d’ouevres.   Turns out the treasurer of FOL grew up in Iowa, so she and John had a lot in common.  At one point I was chatting with John, my husband, John T., Johnny someone-else and John S. husband of the Iowan. 

          Dinner was sit-down buffet – name tags on four tables. The formal dining room held ten, two round glass kitchen tables each held four, and a two folding tables held ten or twelve.  I got to sit with the “darling young boy” – as I kept referring to him, the couple's 35-year old son who lives in Bodega Bay, California.  I loved discussing our mutual love of the ocean. For me the perfect spot to live is Santa Rosa, inland for sunshine, but close to the coast when you need it.

          The party was lovely but loud.  John seemed preoccupied the whole evening, although he said he enjoyed it – reminding him so much of his old Houston crowd.  We were the youngest at the party, except for their son and a granddaughter of one of the guests. 

          “This is the elephant’s graveyard,” John said on the way home. “This is where retired people come to spend the end of their life.”

          I don’t imagine myself dying in Texas.  But I never imagined living in Texas!   I once had an image of myself with braids, in a rural setting, and I fulfilled that the first few yeas I lived in the mountains. I see myself in my later years – say 75-90 – walking down the sidewalk in small town street, shaded with trees.  I wonder where it is?

          Today was a day for reading:  I finished The Autobiography of Ben Franklin, started the Ben Franklin biography by Walter Isaacson, read the morning paper, and several articles in the WSJ.  One, about Egypt was horribly alarming.  The Arab Spring is giving rise to extremists who do not believe Muslims should be ruled by Christians as has been the case in the one Egyptian state that is heavily Coptic Christian. The previous governor was relieved of his position – as all were – when Mubarak was overthrown, and replaced by another newly appointed Christian.  Militants staged a sit-in on the railroad and roads, cutting off the entire region. They do not believe Muslims should be ruled by a Christian. The federal government agreed to put a hold on the appointment for, I think ninety days. When the hold expires . . .?  I’m afraid Americans, in our naiveté think that democracy always promotes freedom. Extremist elements which were marginalized before are now active in the political process. Even those who do not believe in democracy are running for offices so they can change their constitutions and create a Sharia state.

          My heart aches for the women of those countries who are not granted the most basic human rights we cherish.  But with the West crumbling under debt and moral decay (and my Leftist friends might add global warming and corporate greed) I do not feel optimistic that we will return to the halcyon days of our youth. I guess I’m the pessimist, while John is every hopeful that by electing Republicans, things will improve.