He told his wife he was in a
general state of malaise for
at least two reasons. First,

foremost and hopefully of
very short duration is life
lived in immediate, instant-

aneous upheaval (personal
and societal) under a new
federal administration.

Second, and hopefully, of
even shorter duration
is gout from drinking

alcohol. This one he tries
to make sound glamorous
by identifying with one of

his favorite writers, Jim
Harrison, who suffered from
gout because he ate rich

food and drank too much.
But it doesn’t work because
the gout hurts too much.

So, of the two reasons for
his general dis-ease, there
is something immediate he

can do — stop drinking so
the gout goes away which
then gives him the ability

to address the other source
of malaise. With the pain
in his toe gone he can join

a protest march against the
present administration. He
won’t be drinking to that.