"The best chocolate in Norway has arrived!" I followed the blackboard sign into Scandinavia House  where they sell lingonberry jams, Moomin cups and clogs looking for the famous chocolate I just heard about. Not that the country is particularly renowned for its chocolate (as my conversation with the clerk revealed..."Is this the best chocolate?" I asked him. "The best in Norway," he clarified as if to temper my expectations.) But it was more about being part of a thing. Sometimes I want to be part of the main thread of life. Partly because it goes so much against my nature. Let me join in I think, after I feel as if I've been standing on the sidelines for too long. The recent eclipse provided that moment. Other times, like when I found myself trimming my hedges on a Saturday afternoon amid the din of the neighbors' hedge trimmers and leaf blowers an incredulous voice inside my head asks, "what have you become?" Then there are times when I'm quite happy to stand aside and be a non-participant. Like when I was waiting for my tires to be installed at the Gulf station and two older dudes were enthusiastically talking about rebuilding old muscle cars in exquisite detail. Then I'm comfortable with where I end and others begin.