Yin: Morning.

The sky looked heavy and Novemberish, like it could snow, but the weather was warm as spring. We were out in the yard early, raking, , pruning, tidying the garden for winter, washing pots, dividing plants. AJ was in his element, tearing around the yard and jumping into mammoth piles of leaves. My husband started a small bonfire of leaves in the back yard by the stream bed. AJ was fascinated by the curls of white smoke drifting skyward. He jumped over and through them. Finally, he ran inside to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of marshmallows. I cut two long sticks from the red twig dogwood and we impaled our marshmallows. AJ, a little afraid of the fire stood too far from the fire, his marshmallow narrowly grazing the grass. I helped him hold it closer, accidentally setting my own marshmallow on fire. When both marshmallows were toasted and cooled, we ate them. Half of AJ�s ended up on his face. Some of mine ended up in my hair. But it was the best tasting marshmallow I�ve ever had. A perfect fall morning.

Yang: Afternoon.

After lunch, I repaired to the local library where I finally completed a draft of my paper revision. Don�t get me wrong. I�m happy it�s done. But I�m still not convinced it�s better than the previous version. I�ve lost all perspective. I�m relying on my friends M. and L. to tell me the truth. But frankly, I feel I�ve had more intelligent things to say in my diaryland entries, which I write without planning, forethought or editing than I have in this paper that I�ve slaved over for hours and hours and that is supposed to be a reasoned and insightful outgrowth of my doctoral research.

Redemption: Evening

I needed to put the paper away for a while and I also needed to work, so I am spending the evening contemplating issues of music and race in another film � Show Boat � the 1936 version (no other version holds a candle to this one that stars Irene Dunne and Allan Jones and the incredible Paul Robeson). I haven�t seen this in many years and it�s absolutely incredible, so densely packed with plot and songs and incredible performances, that I can scarcely look away, even though I�ve seen it many times before. Jerome Kern could write tunes like no other.

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