I try and write lately, my mind is overwhelmed by something unbelievable
happening somewhere.
Somebody tell me how I’m supposed to tweet haiku in order to
up my social media presence or email bookstores PDFs of my new children’s book
when a country like Great Britain can vote to isolate themselves because of
fear and misplaced national pride?
How should I try and publicize an illustrated book of silly
sea poems to an American audience dealing with our own politics of hate and racism?
How can I work on my new young adult novel after Orlando? Shouldn’t I be
writing something more current, more outraged, more in sorrow and solidarity
with those gunned down and those who must live with the knowledge that they
survived when their friends did not?
I don’t have answers to any of these questions. I wish I
could write something that would make people laugh, or at least smile. Somehow
that doesn’t seem appropriate to me. Not right now.
But there is one thing I can write that will gladden my
heart, and I hope a few others as well. You see, my wife’s son got married this week.
The ceremony was small, just parents, but the love and the laughter and the joy
filled that courtroom to beyond bursting. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that
ceremony lit the entire block up a few incandescent lumens.
The party is in a few hours. Our son is has asked us both to
say a few words if we want to.
I want to. I want to tell everyone at that
wedding reception how lucky I am to know this man, and to love his mother. I
want to let everyone who is reading this know that there are good people in
this world, and I am standing with some of them today. I want to celebrate love
and joy and especially hope.
I haven’t actually written any words to say to these two
fine people who have pledged to love and support each other. I’m sitting down to do
that now. And I know that no matter what has happened or will happen or may
happen out in the world while I’m writing this, these words are important enough to write.
Because these words are love.
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| Superheroes like these will save the world |
