(.....July24) The Partnership

I could say the partnership begins when my day begins, but in fact it's as 24/7 as an all-night diner. I have partners who made the mattress and the bed my body rests on at night, and some of my partners in China wove the pajamas I wear. Partners worked to create the toothbrush and the shaver I greet the morning with while looking in the mirror, and the mirror itself, and of course the computer I check in with was a global affair in design and manufacture. For breakfast I cook the eggs a farmer gathered and a trucker transported to the supermarket, and the oatmeal grown somewhere in the Midwest and processed here in California, and I have a banana picked a few days ago by my campanero partners in Central America. A little later, I get in my Mazada, and I need not describe the partnership of minds and bodies, in time and space, it took the human spirit to put me behind the wheel — and all that's before 10 AM. A profound thank you to all my unseen partners, who sustain me every minute of the day and night, and a wish that my own contribution somehow pulls my weight.