THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

Although I can't say that the movie DUNKIRK made me happy, it did make me glad to see how seriously Christopher Nolan took his task in bringing that battle to life. His method of showing it through three narratives worked well for me. And the sense of self-sacrifice exhibited by many characters in that film reminded me that good people still exist. I especially enjoyed the performance of Mark Rylance, who is always spot on.

I was very happy at how well my meeting with the book group who read SHOT IN DETROIT went. This was a group of women who had been together for almost fifty years. I think my book was difficult for some of them (unlikable protagonist issues), but they were good sports, asked smart questions, made good observations, Some of them were Survivors and how I would love to hear their stories. All of them were still engaged by life, books, movies, lectures. What a great afternoon.

Also enjoyed my own book group as we discussed LOVING DAY, Mat Johnson's novel is about being bi-racial. The woman who hosted it was a widow of two months. What strength it must take to force yourself out in the world so quickly. She promised her husband she would do this and she was keeping that promise.

And my third group of women, that meets Thursday mornings, always manages to make me happy. As we bat around current events and personal issues, munching on fruit and drinking tea or coffee, we always leave smiling.

I am also happy that Phil has found two groups of men to meet with. The Hump Day group, meeting Wednesday afternoon, is very large and their speaker didn't turn up this week, so they pelted Phil with questions about the presidency. It was good for him to talk about his scholarship again. His Sunday group, much smaller,  talks more about sports, politics, etc.

This new community has been so good for us. I am so happy we moved when we did.