There is good in the world, and people who do good. (I am not going to say 'good people,' none of us really is good, because we're all potentially selfish and unkind, and the daily struggle is to smash down those impulses and try to be better)
Something I keep thinking about - at M.'s memorial service, the younger of the two sons of a friend (W., who is 17) was serving as an usher and he was handing out the programs. I walked in with his grandmother because we had been working together in the kitchen. He handed her a program and she, kind of offhand, said "thank you, baby" (she calls EVERYONE "baby" affectionately; she calls ME "baby" and I am less than a decade younger than her daughter). And W. looked at her, and said, earnestly, "I love you, Nonna."
And that made my heart crack a little. As I've said, the family I come from is not demonstrative *in that way.* Oh, it's clear we love each other, we just....don't talk about it a lot. So it kind of took my breath away to hear a 17 year old boy spontaneously say that in such a casual setting. (Then again: W. and his older brother A. are good kids, I'm sure it's the parents/grandparents' credit there)
And I admit, some times I wish I came from a more demonstrative family/was more comfortable being demonstrative myself.
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