Monday, May 1, 2017

Reasons


Thank you, lovely friends, for your supportive comments on my last post. Blogging has its cycles, doesn't it? And not just personal cycles, but the zeitgeist of the blog world itself has evolved, and it often feels as if only a handful of us are left around the fire. For this soulful communion with you hardy few, I am grateful. You are the reason I keep coming around. I would miss you too much if I stopped.

My weekend was good, with all the kids and their sweethearts over on Saturday, including my niece who was in town from DC, and who will graduate from dental school in two short weeks. She passed her boards, so call her doctor!

Later that night I went to a fundraising gala where a writer I admire, Ta-Nehisi Coates, was presented with a "Living the Dream" award. The man sitting across from me at my table was the son of an educator whose book I once edited. The book was called Begin With a Dream. Its author, a lifelong crusader for equal rights, is now close to 90, and suffering from dementia and a terminal illness. His son, when he realized our connection, moved to the seat next to me and asked me penetrating questions about the experience of working with his dad. He wanted every story I could call up about his father back then. I could tell he was feeling very emotional, that he missed his dad. He apologized for getting choked up, and I told him there was no need for apology, and how rare and wonderful it was to have a father such as his had been. My husband said much the same thing later, that it is a gift to have a father worth missing.

I thought I had gone to the gala that evening because the writer who was getting the award had given a quote for a book proposal I recently collaborated on. I appreciated his endorsement, and I suspect it helped us secure a publisher. Now I think that the real reason I was supposed to be in that room Saturday night was to talk to a son about his father.


10 comments:

  1. Isn't it interesting how we cross paths? And you are so right...it is a gift to have had people in one's life worth missing...

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  2. I bet you are right and what a gift you gave him. It must have felt special for you to be able to do that. Life is full of ripples should we take the time to look for them. You are a good woman. 💕

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  3. I was just thinking about you not 5 minutes ago and here is a post. Glad to see it and glad to see that you are (hopefully?) in a lighter place.

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  4. I think you are absolutely right about the reason you were at the gala. What a wonderful reason! I love how you recognize and treasure this. I still miss my father even though he's been gone over 40 years now.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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  5. You gave me chills up and down my back. What a privilege to be the person who gave that son the gift of your unique memories!

    That is a beautiful picture.

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  6. How lucky for that young man to meet you!

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  7. Blogging does indeed have its cycles. Are there fewer of us now? I can't imagine not doing it. It's how I keep track of my life! (Not to mention your life and the lives of so many others.)

    How AMAZING that you wound up sitting next to that son, and had a chance to talk to him. He'll never forget it, I'm sure.

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  8. Some people are just woven together in the cloth of their lives. I feel as if that is what this post is about. I am so grateful that all of us here are part of that.

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  9. I love that image of us all sitting around the fire, it feels like that and it's lovely.

    Incredible moments like yours, sitting with that young man, gifting each other, never leave us, do they? You'll always remember him and he'll always remember you. Are there coincidences in life? I don't think so. I think it's all blessing and it's beautiful.

    I'm so happy to see this post. And those cherry blossoms? I hope that's how you see the world every day.

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