Happy National Donut Day!

Friends,

National Donut Day feels like a good time to look back. Not on the 20+ years I’ve been writing these notes, mind you, but to a time when I was 11 at my grandfather’s ranch. Flying, tethered to a rope I had attached on a high branch of a eucalyptus tree (before the rope snapped and the ensuing fall broke my friend’s arm). Building a straw lair up against the mountainside (before the adults burned it down to keep away the lovebirds who had “nested” there). Simultaneously peeing and walking up the trail while helping carry fresh water to the adobe abode (before city living, mores and social conventions made me self conscious). Molding little swans from the wax dripping off the candles lighting the dinner table (before the absence of electricity was unthinkable). Collecting rusted bullets and grasshoppers, making whistles from orchid leaves and eating the bead-sized pink fruits growing on the fields. Pretending to fall asleep so my parents would let me sleep over — again. Don’t get me wrong, life today is also good. For instance, back then I didn’t know what a donut was… imagine that! Today, I got to try a croissant donut --and got a free donut in the process.
Happy National Donut Friday!

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