I woke at dawn more invigorated than I had felt in years. MY husband slept on but the smile on his face confirmed the enjoyment of the previous night's activities. Was this a great world or what?

During my morning five-mile jog I contemplated my good fortune.

"I have everything I want," I told myself, "all given to me on a silver platter. The time for payback is now. The only question is where to start."

My husband had the coffee ready by the time I got home. While we sipped our coffee I discoursed on my new project.

"All I need to do is read the papers to see what a sorry place the world is becoming. It's up to me and senior citizen's like me to improve the lot of humankind."

"I couldn't agree with you more," my husband said. "Besides you could use another hobby besides canasta. But what on earth will you do?"

"I haven't decided yet but it must be somethng significant. An afternoon away from the card room should help me make a decision."

"Warnings about global warming were making big headlines. Leading scientists predicted that unless something major is done immediately whole states and even countries will soon be under water. It may already be too late to reverse the trend. Many business leaders insist there is no cause for alarm. Major effects of this phenomenon will not be felt for generations. "There's too much controversy about global warming," I told my husband. I will have to look for another venue in which to do my good works."

Hubby smiled his benignest. "I'm sure you'll find a way."

For the next few weeks I spent hours in the library. Poisoning of lakes and forests with pesticides was creating a danger to civilization as we know it. The availability of guns escalated the number of homicides. Religious and ethnic wars all over the world were killing millions. The upside of these effects was there were fewer people to share in the dwindling edible food supply.

At dinner, I sat across from my husband, feeling dejected.

"Why not give it up?" he asked.

"I won't. But maybe my intentions were too grandiose. I'll try to modify them, to look for something I can do, even if it is just a little thing to help preserve our civilization. A thousand mile journey starts with a full tank of gas in the BMW."