Sunrise, Sunset

African Sunset. Photographer: Gary Stolz. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Is there anything in words that can match this sunset? I don't think so.

Thank you, Mr. Stolz, and the incredible photographers that do work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

I am in a physical pain flare-up. I won't stop writing but such times really do make one reconsider everything. There is so much I thought was will-power or power of the mind in my youth -- that was probably a surplus of feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain. I had challenges but not this kind of challenge.

There is some pretty good research out there about optimism and pessimism that takes into account one's state of health. Of course we all know healthy people who are unhappy and unhealthy people that are happy, that float above their pain. I can't float at the moment but I can reflect on one beautiful experience.

A friend of my son's had his Bar Mitzvah this past weekend. As I know this young man fairly well, it was awesome to hear him and see him in a sacred context. Not that carpooling and overhearing what boys talk about is not also sacred...Some day, he wants to explore space...and he has that certitude of achieving his plans, as I have observed in people sometimes. My son's violin teacher knew at the age of three, seeing a violin in a shop window, that he wanted that...though he had never had experience of the instrument before...awesome.

I was in a hospital waiting room when the Shuttle went up this past week. I heard people engaging in an informal debate on the value of such exploration. I said: "We may not know the value until several more decades to come." I was thinking of what my son's generation may uncover.