I was useful and I liked being useful. There is nothing wrong with that and I’d do it again.
But a blessing turns into a fixture, and a fixture turns into an obligation, and that happens so slowly that you cannot point to the week it changed.
Here Is How I Learned That It Had Changed, in Three Small Pieces Over Two Years
One. In the spring of 2024 my friend Delphine — who I’d met at the library book club and who is the only friend I made in Arizona — asked me to go to a museum downtown on a Thursday.
And I said yes. And then I mentioned it at dinner.
And Rebecca put her fork down and pursed her lips and said:
“Thursday. Okay. So who’s picking up the kids from swim?”
