GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING
It sounds a bit like jingoism to say it, like an advertisement for some product that makes good music or produces good food or reproduces elegant images; but what I’m thinking about today is much too beautiful and good to reduce to terms that are used in describing products that can be bought. The gift in my thoughts today is Daughter Nancy, who was born (respect and love hold me back from saying how many years ago) long enough ago that Margaret’s and my lives have been enriched way beyond the possibility of counting.

Today is Nancy’s birthday. The protea is just about the most outrageously beautiful flower I know, so this one is my photo du jour and a gift to Nancy. I did the two paintings posted on the BLOG today when Nancy was in college, so I’d better not say how long ago that was. We lived in a suburb of Washington, D.C., and I was becoming acquainted with Color Field painters like Kenneth Noland, who died last year at age 85, and Sam Gilliam, who is 78 now and still working. Gilliam became one of the best known Washington Color School painters and is often referred to as a lyrical abstractionist. I like that description of him. If Sam is a lyrical abstractionist, Nancy is a lyrical reality.