Bad as things are, TODAY is the good day.

F'instance, one year before my birth, medical science learned how to treat the deadly disease I was born with. A few months earlier and I wouldn't have made it.

And ever since, you might say I've been cheating death although that's a terribly secular way to put it. For all the perils I've survived w/o a scratch or at least minimal injury, I'm totally convinced of guardian angels. One of the reasons I like a fence around a house is because at midnight (when Irish custom says the spirits are nearest) I can go out and bless all four corner posts and ask for protection. A Jesuit priest once explained to me that I'd conducted an exorcism because when I moved to the kind of extremely old house I've always favored, I could sense disquiet. So after prayers with lit candles, I just said quietly something along these lines: "Whoever remains in this house with me, know that I do not seek to disturb or displease you in any way. I ask that you return the indulgence, and if you've been held here for whatever reason beyond your time but you wish to go, depart in peace now with all blessings upon you. If you wish to stay, welcome."

I did that at my present home almost 8 years ago even before I learned the 1847 log cabin around which the rear half of the first floor is built had been slave quarters for many years. A lot of people around here still consider it haunted, but the only effect I've ever felt in that regard is that I never feel alone.

My mother had polio but it didn't have many lasting effects.