Three things from DAH. The There There: Where the heart is.

DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. 
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First up this week: Yen … 
Sounds like I'm heading for Japan, I know, but no. "A strong desire or propensity : longing" (Merriam-Webster). It's pretty easy to slip into the world between yenning (wanting) and kenning (understanding). Myself, a yen demands ken, and once kenned, I can either continue yenning, or drop my yen and move on. Long ago, a friend suggested to me that, "learning more about something makes me care more about that thing." Same here. I've an unanticipated yen for ice cream. I ken, therefore, that the weather must be warming. I'm preferring simple flavors, like salted caramel and chocolate chip. Yesterday evening the lily was gilded with a sample of peanut brittle, for which my yen is seldom satisfied.. Lucky DAH then, this week.  

Second up this week, Yummy …
Ice cream: Yummy. Peanut Brittle: Yummy. Sushi: Yummy. Lots more, too. "Highly attractive or pleasing : delectable" (Merriam-Webster). Yummy is a funny word. Its first-recorded use was in 1899, as a derivative of yum-yum (I don't know from whence yum first yummed). Other words first noted in 1899 (apropos of not much): vasectomy, wowser, zabaglione. Only the last of which I would consider yummy (wowser? perhaps situationally). It strikes me that one could do worse than leading a life in pursuit of the yummy. I can think of some absolutely yummy situations and people (including you?). A yummy chum with whom to share sushi and ice cream could be quite delightful. Do you, too, yen and ken?

Third up this week, Yes …
I may have riffed regarding this previously. If so, forgive the rerun. For the longest time I practiced saying, "Yes, and … " to keep creative conversations flowing. I enjoyed this positive endorsement process. More recently, however, I've found myself … sharing less, I suppose. No particular reason, except that I was finding that others were eager to fill the empty minute (or more) with much more than sixty-seconds spoken. Not seeing any need (or interest in my) explaining or speculating, I began saying, "I don't know" in response to lots. Sometimes, "I've no opinion on that." Sometimes I do know, and sometimes I do have an opinion, but unless my querist (great word: "one who inquires : one who asks questions;" first known use 1633, per Merriam-Webster) is intent indeed, I'll likely defer. Or DAH-fer. 

Another gentle book ...

 

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q. Sutanto
I had a different gentle book here until this morning. But I began reading this one and was absorbed. Set in San Francisco's Chinatown. Vera Wong is a lady of a "certain age" who lives alone above her lonely tea shop. I like this book.
"Following the success of Dial A for Aunties, Sutanto is back with another charmer, this time following the exploits of orthopedic-sneaker-wearing Vera Wong Zhuzhu, who finds a dead body in her Chinatown tea shop. When the police investigation isn't thorough enough for her liking, she concocts a plan to find the murderer, aided by a locked flash drive she found on the body and stashed away for safekeeping. Sutanto excels at skewering with affection, and an earnest hilarity shines through in this entertaining whodunit." (The Washington Post)

And a bit more: 

"The Peace of Wild Things"
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


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