DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. 
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First up this week: Groovy … 
I say and write "groovy." I didn't, back when the word was au courant. I might be accused of irony, but that wouldn't be right. I really mean "groovy" when I express it. It's dated slang, of course. Associated with the 1960s and early 1970s. "(V)ery good and enjoyable : marvelous, wonderful, excellent" (Merriam-Webster). And that's what I mean, in a throwback way. An older use, dating to 1882: "settled into a fixed, often tiresomely undeviating way of living or acting or thinking." Which is not at all what I mean when I say something is groovy. Just old-timey DAH in action. 

Second up this week, Genuine …
My use of groovy is genuine, authentic. Admittedly, genuine and authentic are slippery-slope words. They're too often used to express attributes the user only wishes were genuine or authentic. "(A)ctually produced by or proceeding from the reputed or alleged source or author : not faked or counterfeit : AUTHENTIC" (Merriam-Webster). Genuine, the word, actually does date back to Shakespeare's time (first known use was 1607). It relates to ingenuous and ingenious, which I find pretty groovy. What I could really use, however, is an authenticity meter. A device (mental or physical) to actively sort the genuine from the dross. Please alert me when you find one. 

Third up this week, Gratitude …
I wake each morning with a smile and a silent expression of gratitude. I'm determined to give gratitude more focus. 
"… the state of being grateful : THANKFULNESS" (Merriam-Webster)
I've selected four books to guide my gratitude-forward thinking. 
First up is The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life, by Janice Kaplan. That one's on order.
Then two books (essays) by Ross Gay: The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy. I'm reading The Book of Delights now. 
Fourth, an odd choice: Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman (which I'm also reading now). I appreciate Burkeman's tone. And I intend, as he suggests, to "pay more attention to every moment, however mundane." 
More books, I know. 

A book I didn't expect to read cover to cover ...
Bay Curious, by Olivia Allen-Price
The third of three books I picked up recently. An impulse buy I thought I might dip into. I read it straight through, that day, cover to cover. Born from a KQED podcast series, it simply answers questions posed by KQED podcast listeners. But the short essays are lovely and interesting and well-written. Yes, a San Francisco Bay Area focus, so rather regional. And I love it. 
"NOT YOUR AVERAGE GUIDEBOOK. Bay Curious takes a unique approach to exploring the Bay Area through its lesser known but just as fascinating stories, taking readers on a reportorial rather than literal tour." (KQED.org)

And a bit more … 

"The Moment", by Margaret Atwood

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.


And that's all for this week.
From Mary Oliver's "Sometimes"