Half our life is spent trying to find something to do
with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.¹

I

Arlu was reading a magazine; she chuckles and reads aloud,
"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session
as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."²

Tuco turns from the stove
and smiles
tightly.
Then he remembers the Barry Lopez passage,
"If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult,
it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and
accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox."³

How does one live a moral and compassionate existence?
That was Lopez' question.
And one that Tuco asks often.
But now is a time to relax, enjoy the irony, the paradoxes
while leaning into the light.

II

Arlu had arrived last night, set her bags down and handed Tuco a book.
He read the title, In Praise of Slowº, then he turned to the post-it note
she'd pasted on the cover, "That word 'slow' is popping up everywhere
as shorthand for a new approach to time and pace."

He'd loved the play on words.
Then he'd breathed deep,
slowly
and relaxed
into
his life
that day.
Tuco had turned....

And, again, this morning,
Tuco turns
toward
Arlu.