But

The real issue is a difference between anything and everything when preceding that particular conjunction. Yet, we'll dwell a bit in that terse little sucker a while before we move on.

For one, it was a word to be avoided in advertising. "Too negative," the Creative Director admonished. "Use 'yet'." And so I do, still, like a bad habit (which treads too close to the 'things'), for otherwise, why bring two things together only to tear them apart again, all within a given thought. That's two.

(Oh, I don't want to... Two. I thank both of you, yet hasten to add that I mean no slight to others.)

The world becomes contingent and that in itself is contrary enough for some to be dismissive, a reliance on the latter the usual custom. Nor will I accept contrition: Crazy Eddie, the Puerto Rican, says, "White people, they step on your toe and say 'sorry', and then step on it again." I am certain I am guilty, although never exactly sure of how; at least it slows me down. One can only write between one's own lines and must leave it up to others to do the reading. (Ah, that's a keeper!)

Enough.

Everything but: See what I mean? Inclusiveness shot to shit. Something short of the entire picture, locked without a key, or pressed for a third image that just won't materialize. And one knows it. I suppose it cannot be avoided.

Speaking of which, anything might be more to the point, the bar set a bit lower to include distractions. Admittedly, the tasks set forth and those that demand attention overwhelm like a wound one won't let heal. If one looks at mountains in a certain way, they become gashes.

Again, enough. Were it that easy.

I will tell you a story.

We had been talking about a weekly hike. It is so beautiful here, and there is much to see beyond the road. And I knew of a place. I had been there a couple years ago at about the same time of year that it is now, yet we had been talking about going since May. Something always seemed to interfere, which is, if nothing else, a warning against planning anything in that month.

Yes, I had been there before. I knew it involved a steady incline for two miles. The grade had impressed me, though hardly considered steep; yet, you two too will recall that I may have needed to rest on several occasions toward the promised spectacle due to that unwieldy thumper. I am pleased to record that this time I was able to maintain a pace that kept astride a 36 inseam to my 31, even though it was not I who tread four miles four times a week for years now. I kept up with my younger wife, yes.

We reached our destination.

And then continued on, all uphill. We discovered new paths that, as a way to return downhill, took us through more of Nature's splendor. We stopped mid-stride and kissed.

About a quarter mile from where our car was parked she mentioned her father's jaw cancer. His surgery is next Monday.

"What else can he do but endure it?" I asked. "He knows that."

"But it will be so traumatic. He is going to be in so much pain."

"He knows that as well. He is eighty years old. He has had surgery before. He knows sufferings of other kinds."

"But he doesn't want to talk about it."

"He is being courageous."