We set controls

Ego.
Keeping it in check, knowing when it gets in the way of relationships, and coming up with strategies to feed it. That’s what a family Thanksgiving is all about.  Or, that, and food.
As I process the last week, the first thing that I’m coming to terms with is an event that took place, a reception for my Mom, that both commemorated her starting and editing a journal in California and the resurgence of it at Cleveland State University, where she had been a professor over twenty five years ago.
The reception was amazing. Old friends and colleagues, copies of the journal and tributes to her stewardship.
I hovered, letting people know that she might forget where she was, that she thought they had all come to California, and was wondering why.  But, she pulled most of it off, partly due, I think, to there being no alcohol available to add to the confusion.
Eamon and Jake made surprise appearances, the venue was a penthouse on the lake it could not have been more lovely.
And here comes the part that sums up the nature of aging, where your head is at and what is most meaningful for people of a certain age.
When I asked my mom what she thought of it all, she said, “ the salmon could have used more salt.”