THE NEW MONTH HAS BEEN BUSY

The keyboard beckons.

May has become June and half a month has passed since thoughts were recorded in this place.

The new month has been busy.

We attended the funeral of a Dear Relative, wife of a Cousin.

We journeyed to Small Town USA and watched a parade; attended a 68th wedding anniversary; and a fiftieth birthday party.

We watched loving Senior Citizens treat each other lovingly.

The thought occurs that there is a major difference between the love of the newly-married and that of those married for a long time:
those just married are experiencing a love that is just beginning, that is immature, that is sweet and lovely but that is still based on that which will pass away.
And these days it often does pass away, prematurely.
The long-married have the joy of an evolved love, one that has endured and deepened and that will last until the last days, that very likely will not pass away.

The 50th birthday party was held in an airplane hanger.
The two planes were removed by the man renting the hanger – he is a pilot – and it is the custom of the Communion Group to which many of these folks belong to meet for special events in that hanger.

How delightfully different, precious is that?

It is not elegant.
It is a working hanger with some grease spots and dust and a vintage car parked over in the corner.

The frig had no ice and folks brought their own and we sat at folding tables and Dear Wife and I met the nicest group of folks you could ever hope to meet.
Many of their friendships extended back over fifty or more years.



The 68th anniversary was held in a church reception hall.
Again, dozens of friends who have known each other and loved each other for over half a century celebrated with their families and friends.

Dear Wife’s Dear Cousin made both of these events available for us.

We enjoyed a dinner at the Elks Club and a breakfast at a newly opened eatery.
Smiling wait staff; good food; and unbelievable prices.

We talked politics and religion and immigration and gardening and dogs and family and sat on the front porch and watched neighborhood kids playing.

And then it was time to head North.

The car was reloaded and Dear Wife and Dear Sophie and I were off.

And now it is late and raining and we are in Camp and we think about the last few days and about our home and family downstate and about the world we have found in the North.

The new month has been busy.