ENORMOUS RADIO

Hi Charlie,

Here's a good one from John Cheever (instead of apt bldg, think Patients Like Me) -One of his first successful stories, "The Enormous Radio," is about a young wife in New York who listens to a new radio all day that, strangely enough, is tuned in not to broadcasts but to the conversations going on in the adjoining apartments. When her husband comes home one day she's a wreck.

She sobs:

They're all worried about money. Mrs. Hutchinson's mother is dying of cancer in Florida and they don't have enough money to send her to the Mayo Clinic. At least, Mr. Hutchinson says they don't have enough money. And some woman in this building is having an affair with the handyman--with that hideous handyman. It's too disgusting. And Mrs. Melville has heart trouble and Mr. Hendricks is going to lose his job in April and Mrs. Hendricks is horrid about the whole thing and that girl who plays the "Missouri Waltz" is a whore, a common whore, and the elevator man has tuberculosis and Mr. Osborn has been beating Mrs. Osborn.

The consoling husband has the radio removed--other people's stories may be gripping but they can also have such a sad cumulative effect that they make one's own life impossible to live.

-Blue Skies

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Blue Skies-

I know that Cheever story well. That's a great comparison to PLM. I get it.

Here is a funny thing about me with PLM.

I've always been a denial person. I got it from my mother. It has helped her through life.

When I used to look at old people, I used to think - not me- they were sloppy and lazy- I'll be strong and look great.

When I first started reading PLM - I felt the same way. Those problems happened to other people, I'll be okay.

But now I see - that's not the way it works. That's not the way old age works either.

I think I'll fight - like Clipped Wings - but I have to forgive myself for the progression. And everyone else too.

Sorry - deep and dark thoughts.

Cleaning lady over. Radio on. Eating. New fattening recipe I'm pushing? Whole fat yogurt, stir in gobs of peanut or almond butter - add coconut oil. Eat between meals.

- Charlie