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When I got home and entered the enchanted real would seem marvelous for a few hours, until everyone went to bed Then, slowly, the nightin

I think that passion is strictly for the young Presue, but that isn't what terrifies me

Today I ae and the equal terror that everything ht carry on exactly the same for the rest of my days Some people say that, as summer approaches, we start to have weird ideas; we feel smaller because we spend more tie the world is The horizon seems farther away, beyond the clouds and the walls of our house

That may be true, but I just can't sleep anyht co: life, death, love or the lack of it; the fact that all novelties quickly beco the best years of my life in a pattern that will be repeated over and over until I die; and sheer panic at facing the unknown, however exciting and adventurous that ht be

Naturally, I seek consolation in other people's suffering

I turn on the TV and watch the news I see endless reports about accidents, people ees How ht noinjustices and betrayals? How many poor people are there, how many unemployed or imprisoned?

I change channels I watch a soap or aI', babe?" Because then I would have to say that everything's fine It would be even worse if--as happened a few tih, slid it slowly upward and started caressing aset ith excitement

I would have to say that I' that he was annoyed, would give me a kiss, turn over, and watch the latest news on his tablet, waiting until the next day And then I would hope against hope that when the next day comes, he'd be tired Very tired

It's not always like that, though Sohts in a row, hefor a mistress, and I really don't want to lose hi's norain

"Nor will ever be as it was in the days ere still a mystery to each other

Keeping the sae seeas ht

My friends tell me how lucky I am, because I lie to them and tell them that we often make love, just as they lie to me when they say that they don't kno their husbands can still be so interested in sex They say that sex inonly for the first five years, and after that calls for a little "ihbor lying on top of you, doing things your husband would never dare to do I sex with hi every possible perversion, every forbidden game

TODAY, when I leave the house to walk the kids to school, I take a good look atsex with hi reporter orks withand solitude I've never seen hi All the wo needs someone to look after him" I reckon he knows this and is happya false step and ruining everything--his job, his family, his past and future life

Anyway, I look athis car, and I think: "Look at that, another person just likeOur children will have grown up and moved to another city, or even another country We'll be retired, and will spend our ti our cars even if we can perfectly well afford to pay soe, you have to do irrelevant things--to pass the ti order, to express that you still appreciate the value of money and can still carry out certain humble tasks"

A clean car won't exactly change the world, but this hbor cares about He says good oes back to his work as if he were polishing a Rodin sculpture

I LEAVE my car at the park-and-ride (Take the bus into town! Say "No" to pollution!) I catch the usual bus and look at the sas I always look at on the way in to work Geneva doesn't seerand old houses are still between the buildings put up by some mad mayor who discovered "new architecture" in the 1950s

Ibad taste, the absence of huge glass-and-steel towers, the lack of highways, the tree roots that push through the concrete sidewalks and trip you up, the public parks with their roeeds because "that's what nature is like" In short, a city that is different from others that have been modernized and lost their charm

Here, we still say "Good er in the street and "Good-bye" e leave a shop after buying a bottle ofback We still chat to strangers on the bus, even though the rest of the world thinks of the Swiss as being very discreet and reserved

Horong they are! But it's good that other people should think of us like that, because that e can preserve our way of life for another five or six centuries, before the Barbarians cross the Alps with their wonderful electronic gadgets; their apart roouests; their women, ear too hbors; and their teenagers, who dress rebelliously but who are secretly terrified of what their parents ht think

Let them believe that all we produce is cheese, chocolate, cows, and cuckoo clocks Let them believe that there's a bank on every corner in Geneva We have no intention of changing that ie We're happy without the Barbarian hordes We're all aratory, every Swiss man has a rifle in his house), but you rarely hear of anyone shooting anyone else

We're pleased that we haven't changed for centuries We feel proud to have reht senseless wars We're glad not to have to explain Geneva's somewhat unattractive appearance, with its fin de siecle cafes and elderly ladies strolling about the city

To say "we're happy" ht not be entirely true Everyone is happy a

part fro

ANOTHER day at the newspaper, trying to ferret out so news other than the usual car accident, weaponless hly qualified firemen rushed to put out and flooded an old aparthbors were alar in the oven)

Back ho, the table set, and the fa God for the food we're about to receive Another evening when, after supper, each person goes about his business--the father helping the children with their ho the house, and putting out the