The Good Stuff

A few things that make life worth living:

• real whipped cream
• Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books
• baseball (And I don’t mean money-grubbing, steroid-stoked Major League baseball, but baseball. You know, playing catch with a ball that fits the human hand perfectly. The smack of the ball into leather. The crack of ball against wooden bat. The crunch of dirt beneath spikes. What W. P. Kinsella calls “the thrill of the grass.” Winning the World Series in the back yard with your best friend as your catcher. Chasing down a fly ball in the gap. Playing catch with your son beneath a deep blue sky in the early days of Spring. That baseball.)
• Mrs. Lefty’s meatloaf.
• sheer silence
• beer (duh)
• the cool side of the pillow
• the shade of my olive tree
• that thing that Mrs. Lefty does (for me to know and you never to find out)
• buttermilk pancakes