No Use for Jane Austen

Max’s virtual swearing-in ceremony.

He is now a member of the California State Bar, sworn to uphold the constitutions of both the United States of America and California.

The judge is the gentleman on the upper right. He sits on the California Supreme Court and has mentored Max for the past eight years or so. Max first met him when Max applied for a job as a babysitter for his kids.

“He was their favorite babysitter of all time,” the judge told us.

I got the distinct impression that the judge thought being a babysitter was at least as important—possibly more important—that being a lawyer although of course, he knows the pay is not commensurate.

I note that Bill and MaryAnn—my first husband and his second wife—have started to look like one another as married people do who share a compatible relationship and the years stretch out.

Another reason how I know divorcing Bill was the right move! I could never have looked like him.

###

The virtual ceremony should have made me happy.

But instead, it made me deeply depressed.

The day had been hot. And humid.

I tromped the Walkway because cool river breezes!



But there were no cool river breezes.

Shortly after Max’s virtual swearing-in ceremony ended, we had the most ferocious thunderstorm. Thunder rolling up and down the valley for a full half hour before the sky broke open and the deluge came.

A glimpse of greenish sky!

And indeed, there was a tornado though it never actually landed.

Very apocalyptic!

###

I tried to reread Mansfield Park. And gave up after 30 pages. The truth is that except for Pride and Prejudice (love) and Sense and Sensibility (like), I have no use for Jane Austen.