The recent documentary, The Last Dance, about the Chicago Bulls' remarkable six NBA championships in eight years was a great relief from the relentless noise of COVID and politics for many Chicagoans.

My name is John, and I am an optimist. I can't help it. I always have been.

Now that our President has been persuaded that, unlike Louis XIV, he is not the state, the heavy burden of deciding just how and when to take the first steps toward a modicum of normalcy falls upon the shoulders of the nation's governors.

I do appreciate the concern that everyone has for old people like me during these troubled times. But trust me I have thought about death quite a bit as I have gotten older.