I've never driven to Pittsburgh by way of Cumberland before so I've never come up the Mason Dixon Highway, now aka the Flight 93 Memorial Highway. I listened for much of the drive to an old This American Life episode on my iPod, Hoaxing Ourselves and Others. It included an excerpt from Dani Shapiro's memoir, which I am now keen to read.

It's a dreary day, weather-wise, but I wanted sushi for lunch so I walked a little ways, settled in at the bar at Sushi Kim. The fortune cookie said: "Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."

The paradox was that I had been looking forward to that cookie, but the fortune made it impossible for me to stop thinking about my perceived experience of the cookie instead of the cookie itself.

Back in high school, our principal, Dr. Jenkins, taught a course in Japanese culture and literature. I remembered when he explained the Zen concept of really being in the moment. And, since then, I think I've been in the moment, oh, maybe five times.

Is that the curse of being a writer, or a human?