RISING UP
Ralston and Catherine took lunch on the redwood patio of the Tuscany Cafe, their favorite lunch and conversation spot in the Village.  Their table was surrounded by Italian vines, the scent of roses, and lattice work overhead.  The time was cool, comfortable and easy idle.

  'I love this place in the spring, darling,' Catherine said between sips of a red Dordogne wine.
  'You appear to love the wine more so,' Ralston quipped between tastes of beef.
  'This could be true, I won't deny I love red wine from Italy.'
  'You love everything from Italy.  If we were in Rome, you'd say beggars are cute,' he went on smirking.
  'Now hush.  I do love Italy, some time we should go, in the Fall.'

  'Look, Cathy, overhead, an airplane pulling one of those banners,' he said pointing to the bright sky.
  She looked up.  'What does it say?'
  'It says, Never go to Italy.'
  'It does not.  You're just making that up.  Now what does it really say?'
  'It says, You pay the bill.'
  'No it doesn't.  Do you even know what it says, at all?'
  'It's an announcement that says, 'Greatest Man of the Year' dinner is at the Waldorf Hotel.'

  'Oh, is that all?' Catherine was not impressed with men today.
  'Is that all?  You mean you haven't voted for me as Man of the Year?'
  Catherine laughed, which she rarely does.  She says it gives her wrinkles.
  Ralston went on.  'Look, who is more deserving than me?  Or at least who do you know who is more deserving?'
  'Well now, honey, I can't say I know that many men, but Man of the Year should be very gifted and confident.'
  'I disagree.  I say Man of the Year should be humbled by his giftedness.  To make room for others in your life, to learn to receive and not just take.'

  'Well now, listen to you with your platitudes.  Have you been reading those magazines again, Psychology and Self, and the like?'
  'As a matter of fact, I was reading Great Quotations in History.  One of them was, I must decrease so that he can increase.'  I liked that one most of all.'
  'Hmm, I see,' she said putting her wine glass down.
  'To empty yourself to be filled with blessing and giftedness, to put that down for the sake of others, now that's my ticket.'

  'I see,' she said contemplating what he had said.
  'By the way, do you want your potatoes?'
  'Oh go on, darling, you can have them if your paying for all this.'
  'You're being difficult.'
  'And you like me this way, now don't you?'  She had that sly tilt of her eyes, which he loved.
  'I think I rather do,' he said, clipping the bill and his money together as they left with each other.