Oops, I did it again

An explanation I hope you'll find legitimate for the sporadic nature of my recent output

Left my subscribers and regular readers without much in the way of fresh Precipice content, that is.

The immediate cause is a new set of health issues that has manifested itself just as I had emerged from the set that made for such a miserable spring and summer. The details aren’t pertinent here. I’ll just say that it seems to be mainly centered on blood-pressure-and-kidney matters, although I have a brain MRI, a carotid artery test and a mammogram (my breasts are sore and the tissue has become quite dense) scheduled for later this month. I’m world-spinning-around-me dizzy all the time. My head bobs like one of those spring-loaded dolls. The metallic taste / tingly feeling in my mouth has returned.

The difference between this situation and the one earlier this year is that I’m nominally functional. I can do my teaching and writing work. I’ve played more jazz gigs in the last three months than I had in the previous two years. I train at the gym, although not with the rigor that had been customary.

But I take at least two naps a day and sleep ten hours a night.

My own situation is occurring as I’m seeing a lot of death - among peers, and even in my family - and serious illness, also in my family, and it has me thinking afresh about the question of how to determine what is ephemeral and what is lasting.

Which leads me to the more general reason for my Precipice and Late in the Day output lacking regularity. I realize that both of my outlets for observation and polemics have pessimistic names, and I’ve discussed that before. Pessimism can be healthy. Who can look around our culture, nation and world and conclude otherwise than that human advancement is past its peak? But the state of our species has become more acute of late. Quite frankly, I have been confounded regarding where to begin to address it.

I’ll tell you what. I’ll leave you with that teaser, rather than try to flesh this out in the space of this piece. But I’ll hold my own feet to the fire by promising you all that I will immediately, upon hitting “publish,” start work on just such a piece.

Thanks for not giving up on me. Precipice lives, and will hopefully be back to a more regular schedule of output