I am at my winter place in AZ. I am eating brownies made and frozen by my daughter-in-law. I’m sure I read somewhere that they are curative for a cold. I hope you did not miss that article.

It is chilly here for this time. In the 50s and 60s with several days of rain. In spite of this, when I returned here on January 30th, I resumed my usual busyness, suppressing the thought that I’m old enough to relax a bit. So, in addition to church on Sunday, I attended a talent show, a STEM presentation, and a program featuring a pianist.

I learned that my talents at this age do not measure up to others my age who had the privilege of learning the Charleston when they were young. In my house, I was not allowed to dance, and I think the agility needed for those moves has long ago left my body. I learned from STEM the value of scientifically and geographically, with precision, fracking diagonally, a skill I will never use. At the pianist program—well, I’m happy my mother never attended anything like that with me. She would wonder at my lack of ability to play by sight or by heart. After all, she was my teacher. About all I recall of those days is the tick-tock of the metronome. The metronome, cracked due to a fall in the last seventy years, now sits on my antique shelf at home. It reminds me to be humble.

Then I also attended classes. On Revelation, balance, and Biblical Hebrew. I had a problem with the balance class. I discovered I have none. You just try lying on the floor with 60 others your age, turning to your side, shimmying one knee up under you, planting your hands on the floor, sliding up the other knee, and PRESTO rising up from the floor as gracefully as a well-trained ballet dancer. Try telling your kids (specifically daughter) about that and getting back a cartoon of old people lying on the floor MAKING ALL KINDS OF NOISES on the lift off.

Then tell them you were able to attend the Revelation class before the commencement of your cold and are getting more adept at interpreting all the symbolism, but you fizzled on the way home from the balance class, meaning you have to miss the Biblical Hebrew class coming up. You’ve already told them that so far you’ve learned Biblical Hebrew is not regular Hebrew and is not related to Aramaic. The only reason you’d study Biblical Hebrew today is to read the original Biblical writings because, chances are, you’re not likely to encounter a scholar from that era to chat with. The regular folks in those days talked Aramaic, so you’d need to find that scholar, but there’s really no chance of finding either of them. Alive.

So on the day you are missing your Hebrew class, Amazon delivers two packages. Now what? Lo and behold, the packages contain a package of goodies related to the topic and a four-page plasticized “Study Guide” titled Biblical Hebrew. It seems my kids (specifically son), want me to be able to keep up with my studies at home. I now have the Hebrew consonants flowing through my brain, and I think I’ll see if they stick there before I move on to the vowels, nouns, adjectives, definite articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. After that, there are only three pages left to learn.

You see why it’s no wonder I’m eating frozen brownies. Getting to the kitchen for the brownies is all the effort I’ve been able to muster on my lengthy journey from the bed to the couch. I’m sorry to disappoint some of you who I told that by the end of February I’d be able to greet you in Biblical Hebrew while standing steadily on stilts.

Maybe next year. I have to be able to stand vertically first before I try the stilts.