Surprize Me

Lately, I have been rather down on the human race. It is kind of hard not to be what with the stories that have been in the media lately. But something has happened to reaffirm my faith in humanity. Yesterday would have been my brother's 30th birthday, and I think that all of us were pretty down in our own way. I went out after work and bought myself a present, which is kind of funny as during the first few years of his life I had "decided" that my brother didn't really appreciate presents that were given to him and I would take them for myself. Ah, to be the older sister.

Anyhow, my parents, in particular my father, were feeling particularly down, and they had decided that they were going to go out to the movies to see Man of the Year, in an attempt to lift their spirits. Before they could leave though, the doorbell rang. At the back door, with a rose for my mom, was one of my brother's friends from high school. He stayed for about an hour, updating my folks about the old high school gang and reminiscing about fun times he had had with my brother. He told them that there were a lot of times that he thought about my brother and "talked" out difficult decisions with him.

It was incredibly thoughtful and moved both of my parents greatly. It also really moved me. I used to wonder if this particular guy was going to self-destruct during high school and to hear about how kind he was to my parents yesterday just filled me with an incredible feeling of HOPE.

Man's inhumanity to man

Things going on in the world seem so dark these days. Between the school shootings, the perve incident with Congressman Foley (he is one NASTY piece of work,) the torture policy legislation being passed, and the fact that the price of gasoline has dropped $.70 over the past month (just in time for the mid-term elections...,) there is a large part of me that is simply horrified to be an American.

And I love being an American, despite all the evidence to the contrary. I love living in the City of Boston, home of the American Revolution. I love hot dogs and baseball, fireworks on the Fourth of July, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, apple pie and the Smithsonian Institute. I just don't particularly care for the way that America is running its business at the moment. Hopefully that will change significantly after the second Tuesday in November.

I spent last night at a Yom Kippur break fast with my friend JR and assorted other members of our urban family. And on the drive home, I gave some considerable thought as to how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends around me, who reaffirm my belief that there is good in the world, that there are people who have open minds, open hearts and open homes for each other.