The liberating principle of being lighthearted

The artist has been adding the finishing touches to the piece on the wall to the right. It is the dotting of the eyes. There is often a thankful gasp of comedy to the last few moments on a piece. It is the artist's excitement about being liberated from the anxiety that seems to come along with all of the pieces done by the artist. Come to think of it, the artist was like this when I proposed to her too. Before I had said anything, she began giggling. Marriage is no masterpiece but it had to be ready. Her cheeks were red, the river was gushing, and she kept turning towards me, with this deliberately foolish but always winning, no doubt nervous, smile. I didn't know what I was doing either. The children on the other hand have been pretty much non-plussed about the almost finished piece today. This morning I could hear them swish past it without much ado, and this evening when our daughter returned from her gym class I think she was more interested in draining from her mind the last dregs of a whole week of school than in anything to do with anyone else. With just a smile she puts everything into perspective. It's funny: I could have written a serious account of the day - I was going to write at some length about a great man we both knew who died last week. (He deserves a book not a few sentences in a blog.) But I began this entry as I now intend to finish it, which is to say by ending today's writing fray by hunting out the warmest moment of the day. We both for example had numerous errands to do separately this morning and I think enjoyed our independence. The artist had the mobile phone this time and a friend of mine, an increasing war zone specialist as it happens, happened to phone just as she was having her first ever massage from a Brazilian woman. (Very funny: I liked that.) Just now she has walked past the nearly finished piece with our son in her arms. He had fallen asleep with a smile on the sofa. She didn't look at the piece as she passed but you could tell from her expression she was not too anxious about it. This is good. Anxiety is the engine of much industry round these parts. Best to leave it out of today's blog.