The Top Ten

Topics, etc.

1. My first wife's ongoing request that I write down a story she'd had in mind all her life.
2. Treatise on how we've become a nation of narcissists.
3. Letter to a former boss and business owner on why he is not and never will be a success in business.
4. Description of motion.
5. Poetry of any kind.

Meals

1. Several by both my first and second wives.
2. None by me, I'm afraid.

Significant Moments

1. When, as a kid, I was fishing off a dock and hooked a fish through the eye.
2. The first time I got drunk.
3. The first time I made love to a woman.
4. The first time I got 'dumped'.
5. Witnessing the birth of my daughter.
6. Real confession when it occurs.

Significant Conversations

1. With my music teacher when I was an early teen -- can't remember the content, but I remember that it was significant.
2. Many while stoned (years ago, I might add).
3. With a guy who picked me up while hitchiking and turned my head on the whole nature of the Vietnam war, just before I had to report for duty with the Marine Corps.
4. When I advised a particularly competitive senior sales manager that I didn't feel I needed to conquer everyone with whom I came in contact.

Things I Love Most

1. The sight of pine trees against a blue sky, because the two colors are so beautiful together.
2. My daughter, because her complexity is like a fine wine.
3. My current wife, because she is so independent.
4. A cold beer on a hot day, because it tastes so good.
5. Cats, I don't know why.
6. Kids, because they're just so much fun to be around.
7. Being alone for long periods of time, because the mind can settle and stuff comes out of that.
8. Real shit-kickin' country music, because it resonates with something in me and makes me feel good.
9. Flying dreams, because they're fun and they mean I'm happy.
10. Deep friendship and communication with another man, because it's fulfilling.

Description of Hands

It starts with the amount of hair on the back of the hand. Surprising. And then there are those little brown spots that have just emerged – the kind my father used to have. Mm, and all the hair is sweeping in one direction, like it was combed. Neat. It’s even on the fingers, but not much. More on the right hand than the left. The nails are nicely trimmed and the fingers are, well, long and thin for a man. I once heard my mother, or maybe it was my grandmother, say "he’s got piano fingers." The color is pinkish-yellowish-tan and the veins show through in places. Not much in the way of cuts or calluses or other dings, although there are quite a few bumps in the right palm that have been there for years, one emerging in the left, and lines in both. Not much more to it than that, except for the wrinkles.