Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.

The Book is: “Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I bought it at Heathrow airport to read on the plane.

The Poem is: You Want a Social Life, with Friends

You want a social life, with friends.
A passionate love life and as well
To work hard every day. What’s true
Is of these three you may have two
And two can pay you dividends
But never may have three.

Homer nightly went to banquets
Wrote all day but had no lockets
Bright with pictures of his Girl.
I know one who loves and parties
And has done so since his thirties
But writes hardly anything at all.

— Kenneth Koch

Do you think that’s true? It certainly would explain a lot about my life, if so. But I can think of counterexamples. People who do seem to have all three. Like Josh, for instance.

Also, Kenneth, what happens when you try to fit kids in there? Does the whole thing just fall apart?

Yes, yes, it does. For certain types of people, at least. The exhaustible types. The “me” types.