A sense of lightness

I’ve been trying to go about the summer Friday newsletters with a sense of lightness, the way I make a collage out of scraps in my drawer — I pull out what I’ve saved, push it around until it makes sense (or nonsense), and glue it down. (Hit send.) Last Friday’s letter was called “The very thing that drove you away,” and began: Everyone, it seems, is on vacation. My bike gang is on vacation! My bandmates are on vacation! My barber is on vacation! My therapist is on vacation! Heck, you might be even on vacation. One day soon, I, too, will be on vacation, and when I am, I will think of Seneca quoting Socrates in Letters from a Stoic: “How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you away.” Today’s is called “Choose your own Odyssey”: Will every single item on this week’s list refer, somehow, to The Odyssey? Yes, my friends… As for the Tuesday letter, I have so many typewriter interviews that have come…