BEAUTIFUL

        Yesterday, late afternoon, was a time of beauty. It was a time for family and friends, a time for sharing, for mutual love and friendship, a time for  hugs and kisses and sweet memories along with deep hopes - and fears - for the future.
     It was graduation day for our oldest granddaughter, a gem from the moment of birth , a source of love and pride always - and forever. As I looked at the faces of those around me, I saw those same emotions and when a principal called them women, well, it hit all of us. These are no longer only our girls; they are women, young ladies about to enter a larger world and make their way in it, a very difficult task. They were no longer only ours, for now they truly belonged to themselves and to the world. Hopefully, they will make it a better place, a more humane world, where people actually care for the planet and the people on it.
     For those hours of ceremony and festivities, as 
families hugged each other in the restaurant, as we shared in the joy, we all realized that this is what life is truly about. This is why we struggle, why we try so hard to right the wrongs of life, why we make such efforts to fix, to mend, to improve. This is beautiful and at these times, just as we remember why we strive, we also need to look away, at least for the moment, from the ugliness of the world, especially now, with morality in government at such a low point.
              So for yesterday and today at least, to hell with that creep who thinks he is above the law, for the primary motive of today is celebration and love. Mazal tov, congratulations to the parents and families of all the graduates from pre school to college and beyond, and our heartfelt sympathies for those whose children were not there to graduate because our crazy gun policies allowed for them to be shot - in school. These cracks that fracture the beauty and love must be fixed, but for today, we hug, we love, we laugh.