Signature of Light, 66th Day of Spring, 525 M.E. (Atlas): As it turns out, I got my walk in yesterday, a full Van Buren - 8.2 miles. The weather cleared up in the midafternoon and I wasn't even a mile into my walk before I forgot what my reluctance to going outside even was in the first place. I feel better now for having walked.

I awoke this morning to a way-too-early 6:50 am text message from a neighbor saying her wi-fi was down and asking if anyone else was experiencing problems (the only problem I was experiencing was getting woken up too early about someone else's first-world troubles). There was a power outage sometime last night - I woke earlier in the morning, sometime around 2:15 am, to the beeps of various electronics resetting themselves when the power came back on, and had to get up and reset my alarm clock. But before it even went off, but after the 6:50 text message, the ominous rumble of distant thunder woke me up for the third time from my fitful sleep. I guess what I'm trying to say is I didn't get a good night's sleep last night, but I won't let that stop me from my alternating-day sitting today (meditation is challenging when one is sleepy).     

The thunderstorm blew over by 11:00 am with no incident.

Today's post was intended to be a criticism of the recent journalism by Jake ("I dated Monica Lewinski") Tapper and others about Joe Biden's mental acuity during his last year or so in office, and a broader attack on ageism in general, but then I saw the news today that Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. This sad development makes my intended point irrelevant, renders Tapper's current book tour meaningless, and highlights the pettiness of the reporting about the former president. A man in his 80s might need a wheelchair sometime in the future, according to an unnamed source? Is said not to have recognized Georgia Clooney at a fundraiser? How petty, how irrelevant, how disrespectful. 

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S. and the second leading cause of cancer death among men, according to the American Cancer Society. The cancer has spread to the bone, Biden's office said in a statement.

Impermanence is swift.