“A good memory is fine but the ability to forget is the one true test of greatness.” —King Buffet fortune cookie

Casey, Skyler and I had a late luncheon Sunday and then there was the passing out of fortune cookies. I was the last one to read mine out loud, when I finally stopped laughing. Then, after I read it outloud, everyone joined me in laughter. It changed my whole attitude. Now I can take pride in forgetting.

I don’t think I have been a wizard in remembering—too many things on my mind, at least in these days of my life. I think there’s help in forgetting with my age… and life goes on.

It was no doubt a daring night for Santa to be delivering his bags of gifts and not slipping when snow turned to rain and then ice. There’s a good chance the ice will cling tenaciously to the roads and sidewalks for days to come.

Jeanne drove over to Houston to spend a few days with her family, leaving us boys in charge. Casey and Skyler are back home from school for a winter break, and they preferred to stay here.

Skyler went with me Sunday to the Unitarian Church in Rochester, not knowing what to expect. We got there after the first service and a while before the second service, which gave us time to browse the library and be greeted by some of the church greeters.

The service was managed by two Unitarian members, one man and one woman, who presented the ritual for change and growth.  The first one: “Who comes here to say that they have felt loss, have known separation, have mourned, have resisted and feared the threat of life’s changes?

Then the congregation of thirty-some responded, “We do.”

The next one: Our regard for each other carries no promise, delivers no judgment. Our hopes intertwine. We would realize the potential with which we were born.

The congregation replied: “We would grow.”

I’ll stop there… I did manage to check out the Emerson book I borrowed not so long ago while Skyler browsed the shelves. The books can be checked out for four weeks at a time.

On the way back we spent a half hour browsing Barnes and Nobles without spending any money or charging anything.

On Monday, which seemed like Sunday, I received a call from the Herald Editor reminding me there was a letter I missed picking up last week.

I was wondering what he was doing there on Sunday. On my way there I decided it was Monday, another workday. It came from a law firm.

When he first mentioned it came from a law firm it made me a little nervous. It was from a member of the law firm who helped fill me in on Kafka, who was one of his “personal favorites” and let me know that Kafka was a German-speaking Jew. He provided two informative pages on Kafka.

Somewhere in my growing collection of material in my little corner of the basement I have a paper this attorney wrote when he visited Prague some time ago. I need to find that. It would help me understand what I saw in Prague.

Jeanne returned from Houston Monday, bringing back some gifts from her family that included a bottle of California Chardonnay called Redwood Creek. I think Kevin had a hand in that. He’s also part Czech. They reside in Chicago, which I believe is a Czech stronghold.

My Dad shared a saying in Czech the old-timers used to say when they had had it with the cold of Minnesota and declared ‘in English’ blank on America I’m going to Chicago…or in Czech (misspelled of course) Vizterutz on Amreika pediczeck Chicago. Perhaps some of the older Bohemians in the area can correct me on the spelling.

I’m hoping readers are noticing the increase in minutes of daylight each day. It helps when the light in the sky is sunlight and not a cloudy gray sky and in a couple days we get to greet 2010.

“This we know—the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”— Chief Seattle