PERSONAL: On this Christmas Day, we're all busy people...

...you never really have enough time, so just do yourself a favor and do some things once. Inquire on a beggar of his or her health. Get a cat to purr. Help a man or woman carrying a suitcase. Read a book of contemporary poetry -- check here for suggestions. Accidentally overpay. Look up at a skyscraper. Breathe in an open field of sky, blue as the blue you imagine. Write your own list.

There's not much else but memory to keep you in the clouds, and others' memories of you to root you on this earth. Because when all things are done, the worldly tithes paid, what do we have but sappy moments, this embarrassing prose, our honest confessions? And perhaps the words Has your life been well?, which everyone should try to say at least once.