Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Today we go to the opera.  It's a challenge roughly equivalent to climbing Mount Everest, but without the snow.  First there is the outfit thing.  Tights, a decent dress and jacket, the shoes.  Don't forget the tickets or binoculars.  Then the traffic.  One must be a Zen master to remain present and calm.  Then the parking, of which there is none.  Then hiking many blocks in said finery to get to the opera and climbing without sherpas the many slick marble stairs to get to our section.  We buy dreadful sandwiches and potato chips because we've had to leave two hours early but still there is no time to eat at a cafe.  We read the program companionably and I head to the bathroom, and then we find our seats and get up and down up and down as others, later than us, shove through, step on our feet and coats and settle themselves in.  Although it is chilly outside, the inside is muggy with human bodies, all emitting perfumes and menthol cough drops and fiddling with cell phones.  They dare not be disconnected a moment too soon.  The lights dim.  All is forgiven.  The overture soothes and lulls us into beings willing and ready to be enchanted.  I have no doubt today, as usual, we will be.