'This idyllic life'

| 25 Mar 2020 | 10:16

    For a while, I had thought it would be great to slow down a little, that is, from 75-hour work weeks and ridiculous over-commitment to something more civil and balanced (that overused word which we know when we experience).

    I had thought it would wonderful to spend more time at home, hanging around with Lee and using this wonderful new kitchen/family room she and her helpers recently completed.

    I also knew spring was coming and I saw myself gardening and raking and planting and on and on. I also often wondered what it would take to crack my ludicrous addiction to sports -- spectator sports which wasted many of the precious few hours I had when I was not working.

    So, now, it is all here, this idyllic life. I can read, and work, and take a little more time on each case and be home and spend more time with Lee and the kids, who are enforced returnees, and garden and eat really well (because Lee won't have it any other ways). I am not very concerned that I can't go to the office and find it bustling. I am not very concerned that my routines of more than 40 years are broken. I want to do my work, but at a bit different pace.

    Strange. In this terrible crisis, I am finding utopia on our five acres of land, surrounded by 300 acres of forever protected land -- so isolated in a way, but so connected too often to this dangerous and crazy president who cannot be anywhere without it somehow being all about him...wow...listen to him and I cringe...mental illness...he needs help...HELP.

    So, find some way to enjoy this very different time. We have no real idea how long it will last and what the other side will look like -- who will even be there, what restaurants, what friends, really -- but, in the meantime, make something positive for yourself of the change in routine and do not complain or spend too much time worrying. It usually gets us very little in return.

    Michael Sussman

    Chester