We get the Washington Post and the New York Times delivered every day. Except for today. There are no newspapers outside.

When this happens, we call the two newspapers and they take our information and tell us that we will get their paper by 10:30. Except for today. Today they tell us (and when I say “they”, I am speaking of the automated “they”) that “delivery today is impossible. Goodbye!”

What are we to make of that? I assume there is a problem with the carrier (same carrier delivers both papers), and that no one in this part of DC is getting a delivery today. Or it could be a problem with the delivery of the newspapers to the carrier, or that when the carrier went to pick up the newspapers, none were there. We will never know the answer.

I will add this to the other questions, whose answers remain unknown to us. Like, what is the meaning of life? Or will the rain ruin the rhubarb, or is this just an old saying? Or who decided to name Finn, Huckleberry? And why hasn’t Huckleberry become a more popular name?

I saw a comic this morning talk about a question he had. His question was “where does the sun go at night?” You might think this is a silly question to be stuck on. After all, there is a scientific answer to this one. But he said he pondered the question all night. Until it dawned upon him.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? That is another question that may have no answer. And speaking of answers and sound, why were there helicopters whirring overhead last night at about midnight? That’s a tough one.

Here is another tough one. If the Supreme Court lets all of the states re-district their districts, so that Democrats don’t have a chance, do Democrats still have a chance?

And another. If Donald Trump goes to China this week, does he have to come back?

From what I have written so far, you might have already guessed that I got up about 5 a.m. today and could not fall back asleep. You may have also guessed that I have not yet had my morning coffee. And here is one that you don’t have to guess, because you already know it: I have not looked at the morning newspapers.

What else? Geraldine Gudefin, a young French born historian, is giving a series of four lectures on Zoom for the Haberman Institute (you remember I am president of Haberman) on how Jews gained citizenship or the rights of citizenship in various countries across the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. In her first talk, she concentrated on countries in western and central Europe, and in her second (last night) on Russia and the Ottoman Empire. They can be found in the archives on the Haberman website (www.habermaninstitute.org), along with a few hundred other presentations. I recommend them; you might want to look. Each (with q and a) runs about 90 minutes.

I say this because she ended her talk last night by showing a painting by Marc Chagall called “Onward”. We may not know where we are, and we may not know where we are going, but we go. Onward.