Sunrise with Storm
                                                                                                            January 16, 2010
                                                                                                            Photo Credit: Bianca Dorso

I think what makes life so exciting sometimes is the combination of things.  It's the juxtaposition of dark against light, for example, that makes both seem darker and lighter, respectively.  In similar fashion, a witty turn of phrase from the heroine right before the big reveal of the demon behind her provokes a laugh and a shock at the same time, which is always effective.  I would almost add that a similar result is achieved through the side-by-side play of tender moment right before the final action sequence but in my opinion that's been rather overdone lately; see 2012 and tell me if you don't agree. 

A  storm sweeping in at sunrise.

Of course sometimes it's just a combination you haven't tried or thought of yet that results in something fresh and exhilarating.  A polka-dot linen on a pair of Louis Seize armchairs.   Brie and pineapple chutney.  Plaid shorts with a thermal underwear top, although this latter example works best on the body of a 18 or 19 year-old god, and as we all know, pretty much anything on an 18 or 19 year-old in spectacular shape is going to be exhilarating no matter what the combination.  Still, I think you see my point.

Then there's the old and familiar in a new form.  I am currently reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and I must tell you I can't put it down.  A brother and sister with their mother struggle to hold on to a once great stately home now in decline a couple years after the War (WWII), their plight described by a narrator not from the landed gentry -- yes, you're thinking it sounds like another Brideshead, but as I said, this story takes an interesting new path through a recognizable landscape.  As you might imagine, given my taste for stately homes and landed gentry in decline, I am enjoying it thoroughly.

The point is, it was just this past Thursday while battling traffic to get to Brentwood that I attracted the attention of a young lady in a Porsche who, in order to show her disapproval of my own driving, darted recklessly in and out in front of and beside me, gesticulating wildly.  Oh dear, I thought, knowing how bad days are contagious.  Would I end up catching hers?  Not to mention that with my habit of seeing trends everywhere, as I crept ever more tardy to my destination (on a mission to do good), listening to the news reports coming out of Haiti, it did begin to feel as though life was taking a sudden and terrible turn for the worse.  

But now, since storms have a tendency to blow over around here, we've ended up having a perfectly lovely weekend, with plenty of time to run errands, make a couple trips to the gym, attend a garden party at Rob and Carlos's, have brunch with an old friend, squeeze in a cranial massage and then settle in with a good book, and if a better combination of happy circumstances could be found, I could not tell you.  You might even be tempted to forget that really awful things are going on in the world.  Emphasis on the word might, since you would not (can't) forget that this too is a juxtaposition, the unspeakable suffering and the unexpected joy, the despair and the contentment, going on at the very same time.