I brought some notes with me for a blog or two I wanted to ponder. It's nice to dally with a thought, to have time to dally with a thought. . I have just recently joined a new venture launched by CSARN (Canadian Senior Artists' Retirement Network). Salons. If you think immediately, as I do, of the famed French salons presided over by gifted women like Mme de Sévigny (1626-1696) or Mme de Stael, (1766-1817) centuries apart , were gatherings for discussion by men and women, usually presided over by women, dedicated to intellectual discourse.

After two meetings, I'm waiting to see where we go. So far, they seem to me to be too closely career-oriented rather than idea-focused, and though we elders all need a lot of help as the media play the Age Card against us, we also need to use our hard-won wisdom to figure out why we're (still) here and what (in the world) we are doing???

Maybe I'm asking too much.

I wrote that line in a play of mine (a comedy). One character asks of others after they have turned up in a city strange to them to take a holiday together with money they have won/earned. She says, "Why am I here?" And another character answers, "Sooner or later we all ask that question."

Yup, we do.