I sometimes wonder...

My father used to say that - I sometimes wonder -, mostly in exasperation at someone’s foolish or stupid behavior, but I wonder at all manner of things that are less exasperating than they are unexplainable to my limited understanding.

Case in point: how did the wealthiest country in the world get into a situation where people are losing their jobs, seeing their life savings cut in half or losing them altogether, where banks aren’t doing an important part of their raison d’être - loaning money - and where confidence in just about everything is eroding away? There are as many answers as there are pundits. But I still wonder.

On a sunnier note, I also wonder about cats. Yes, I love cats, I have two now, and except for brief times in my life, I’ve always had a cat. Now, I know that cats aren’t dogs, and I have nothing against dogs anyway, if I’m not allergic to the dog. In fact I have two granddogs, Max and Beau, and I really enjoy them when I visit them. Back to cats. I wonder what they think, and there’s no doubt that they do think. I’ve watched them think. I doubt that they think exactly the way humans do, but they do figure things out, and they do learn things, and it’s not just operant or classical conditioning. Some learn faster than others, figure things out far more easily. I wonder about this.

I also wonder why some things have a profound effect on my heart or soul at one time and don’t another time. For instance, sunsets. I’ve seen lovely, beautiful, and amazing sunsets in my life, but I’ve seldom had a sunset fill me with longing for…well, for what I don’t know. Last night driving home from work, I saw a sky that caused such a yearning; it wasn’t just that it was beautiful, it was achingly beautiful. And it wasn’t really a spectacular sunset, just achingly beautiful. I wonder about that.

Years ago I was driving to Connecticut to meet the parents of the woman my son was about to marry, and I happened to hear the Mozart clarinet concerto on the classical station I was listening to. The second movement affected me so deeply that tears rolled down my cheeks; it was not dissimilar to the yearning I felt at last night’s sunset. I’ve heard the same concerto many times since then, and it’s always lovely, but it doesn’t have that profound yearning affect on me. I sometimes wonder.

By this point, you’re probably wondering just who this wondering person is. I’m a woman of a certain age who usually has something to say about most things, and I finally figured that if my son could figure out how to blog, then probably I could too. My son is considerably smarter than I am, but I also figured he’d help me if I ran afoul of the blog police.

Sometimes when I’m at work, I need a break from whatever I’m doing, and I have things I need to impart to someone. Thus, a blog! If every Tom, Dick, and Brian have a blog, then why not me? Indeed!

More to come…