Are some of the best days of our lives, the ones that we should burn most deeply into the long-term store of memory, also some of the most uneventful and uncomplicated ones? Should we make more of an effort to remember the quiet contented times along with the roller coaster rides of success and failure, heartbreak and triumphant love?
     As I got into bed last night, I thought about the dinner my wife and I had shared with our closest friends at a local restaurant in our town center. Both couples had walked from their homes to the restaurant. Something we almost take for granted, but is increasingly unusual in our driven world. The restaurant itself had changed its fare recently from a gimmick of "gourmet comfort food" to a straightforward healthy menu of more simply prepared and healthier food. After the dinner, I walked back to my friend's house and watched some of the NCAA tournament. When I came home, I found both of my teenaged daughters safely home from nights out with friends. Each of them was in good spirits and gave me a hug goodnight. I crawled into bed next to my wife who greeted me by rolling closer to me under the blankets. Before I gave myself over to sleep, I told myself to save this moment, to savor this night where the "undertoad" (from John Irving's "The World According to Garp") had mercifully been kept at bay and we were all, all four of us, O.K.
     One more thought - the words - "save" and "savor" - seem so close, but their meanings and etymologies are different yet, in a funny way, complementary. When we save something, we preserve and retain it. When we savor something, we take enjoyment from and relish in it. "Save" comes from the Old French, "Sauf," and from the Latin, "salvus" - safe, healthy and uninjured, but ultimately from the base of "sol," which means whole. To "savor" comes from the Latin, "sapere" - to taste, and is also related to "sapient," which means to be knowing, wise, and to have taste. And in these two different aspects of these words, we find the wisdom (and taste) to enjoy the solid (same root) moments of our lives. Through saving and savoring, we grasp the key to the gift and bliss of memory on a day that "nothing" happened.