A Fresh Start

Patty Smith was recently interviewed in The New York Times Magazine on the occasion of her 61st birthday.

Interviewer: You seem very sane for a punk rocker.

Smith: I had a very good role model. My mother had no end of tragedy in her life. She would make herself up and go out and do laundry. Hang up sheets. She told me that when she looked at laundry, the sheets floating in the wind, and the sun, it was like a fresh start.

I can just picture that: the woman's elegant courage. For years, and now still, after a bad night, for any reason, I get a sense of a fresh start from the ritual of washing my face and then brushing my hair. Tactile. Simple. Just those two things. I'd like to interview people and find out what their fresh start rituals are.