I saw this swan on the porch of Jack’s Outback Antiques store on Main Street in Cambridge, I stopped to take a photo and Jack came out and I asked him how much it would cost. He said it would be about $250, it was an old piece he got somewhere in Vermont. Jack and I have been dealing with one another for years, and I love to haggle with him, but this price was a little steep for me right now and I told him so.

As is his custom, he called back and said he could come down a bit for me, he just wanted to get back what he spent (this is a standard Jack line, he would thrive in a Persian Bazaar), but there’s a lot going on in my life right now and I told him it just wasn’t a good time. I can live without a swan, although I love these old stone pieces Jack digs out of the countryside. I told Maria this story and then put it out of my mind, with Lenore’s death there was plenty on my mind.

This morning, when I came home from the dentist, Maria said she had to move some of the stone pieces in my study around, would I take a look? I did, and was shocked to find the Swan there. She went out and bought it for me. I was just thinking about how maturity is sometimes about not getting things you love but don’t really need.

Love is about giving the people you love things that they love but sometimes do not need. So my wonderful wife haggled a bit with Jack, she does not love haggling as Jack and I do, and I have my swam sitting on the floor of my study.