You have such a nice home. It’s always so interesting to see the spaces in which people live. Thank you. When you were in the other room, I was looking around and imagining what it would be like to live in this room, if this was my place. It’s so peaceful.

How do you keep it so clean? There’s not a smidgen of dust anywhere! The books are arranged so neatly. And those photos. This must be your parents … and your family. Is that you? Are these your brothers and sisters? What a big family.

I find it fascinating how photography has changed over the years. You can tell when a picture was taken from the size of the print, the color, the grain of the film. These must be your children. Studio portraits, a birthday party, a picnic, another birthday. Nowadays, they don’t even make prints, and the ways that you can manipulate an image with Instagram and such, there’s no way to know when a picture was taken or what it is. You must like sparrows. They are so small and quick.

I like the way the light hits the wall up there. That must be bouncing off of something outside or something. The sun wouldn’t come in here from that low an angle. And that ripple effect, where’s that coming from? The glass? It’s beautiful.

I really love these old houses. I mean, look at that woodwork, that molding. Nobody does that anymore. Houses are practically made of paper these days. They blow away in a strong wind.

I’ve seen a lot of houses. You are lucky that you are able to maintain this. A lot of people in your situation can’t keep up. We’ll do everything we can to make sure you can stay here as long as possible. This really is a beautiful room.

I’m going to have to ask you a few questions. About your circumstances, your finances, your physical fitness, your presence of mind, that type of thing. Nothing too invasive.

I need to write some of this down. I used to be able to remember stuff, but my memory isn’t as good as it used to be. I make it a point to write down all the important stuff. Like what day it is. Today is Thursday, for instance, so I will write that down right here. On this piece of paper. That way I will always know that today is Thursday. Ha, that’s my little joke. Like if you write something down, it will always be true.

When you look at a piece of paper, you have to identify the nature of the piece of paper that you are looking at and the nature of what is written there. The matter may have been transitory. It might be a good idea to write down that you are going to look at a piece of paper before you look at it and specify which piece of paper it is you are going to be looking at just so you can remember what piece of paper you were looking at when you think about looking at it or when you did that.

I was looking at a piece of paper one time, and I looked at it until it started to look like the piece of paper was blank. I couldn’t stop wondering what piece of paper it was and what was written on it. It got so that all I could see was me looking at a piece of paper.

Do you do that sometimes? Look at a piece of paper? Where does it go? When you start to think about the words and their meanings, where do you go? Are you still there? Or do you disappear into the paper?

I am really overwhelmed by how nice this room is. I wish I lived here.

But, I can’t stop wondering about this plate. This little white dinner plate. Why is it here? Is there something special about this? Is it an antique? It doesn’t look like it belongs here. I was just looking at it. Did you know it’s cracked? The crack goes all the way around, almost all the way across. It feels like it could fall apart in my hands. Oh.

For further consideration: A number of years ago, I bought a CD of Erik Satie compositions played on accordion by Teodoro Anzellotti. A few days ago, I found his version of “Gymnopedie, No. 1” on the YouTubes.