Ten Unmediated Pleasures Strike Back

1. An impromptu a cappella tear through “Bohemian Rhapsody” that starts in ragged three-part harmonies and collapses into helpless laughter on the kitchen floor.
   
   
2. Tiny sidewise flick of the wrist answered by the hiss of fishing line on the reel and, much later, a faraway splash.
   
   
3. The passage from full sun into leafy shade, and the incremental temperature drop.
   
   
4. A tug on the starter rope yielding a finely-calibrated resistance and then the satisfying roar of a small gas engine.
   
   
5. The thump and smack of baseball into mitt.
   
   
6. An idea, then another, turning in your head like 3-D puzzle pieces, then locking together. Then another. And again.
   
   
7. Cat’s sandpaper tongue against your thumb.
   
   
8. Cottonwood tree’s leaves rippling in a stiff breeze like half a million little green flags, and banishing Cole Porter from your mind’s ear long enough to hear it for what it really is.
   
   
9. First sip of shandygaff, mixed cold in a plastic cup on a hot day.
   
   
10. Success against odds; virtue rewarded. The first and truest of pleasures.