Morning In Virginia |
Morning With Coco |
We left for Bristow yesterday around 8:30 and had rain the first part of our drive but as we got farther east and south, it cleared up nicely. It was an easy drive and took us a bit longer than the usual seven hours as we had to stop a couple of times for construction work on the backroads. The longest was entering Berkeley Springs, WV, where we waited for at least 10 minutes for the one lane to open to traffic from our direction. We stopped for breakfast and lunch at Mickey D's and once at our favorite Shell station along with a bakery, garden shop and produce market. For New Yorkers, gas was only $2.03 a gallon compared to our $2.45. Needless to say, I will fill up tomorrow on our way home to the lake.
The Gang's All Here |
All six of us sat down in the living room and got caught up on each other's lives. Jill got out the wine and cheese and crackers and we just enjoyed the late afternoon, listening to the girls tell us about their lives. They both are doing well. Jill and Drew are both busy with work, in fact, Drew is off to Nigeria today for a week for business. I don't envy him.
Jill made a tasty shrimp dinner with pesto. We were all hungry so we did not linger, finishing up quickly. After dinner, because Evie had bought some peaches at the fruit stand, I wanted cut peaches on ice cream for dessert. So Hayden, almost 16, volunteered to drive to the nearest store. We picked up two half gallons, one vanilla, the other peanut butter and chocolate, Hayden's Dad's favorite.
Not A Dog's Life |
I am attaching an excerpt from Chief Justice John Robert's Graduation Speech to his son's 9th-grade class. It shows a compassionate and thoughtful side of a guy who is often thought of as an arch conservative. It gives me hope.
"Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.
Enough advice. I would like to end by reading some important lyrics. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These lyrics are from the great American philosopher, Bob Dylan. They’re almost 50 years old. He wrote them for his son, Jesse, who he was missing while he was on tour. It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter. They’re also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful, they’re timeless. They’re universal. They’re good and true, except for one: It is the wish that gives the song its title and its refrain. That wish is a parent’s lament. It’s not a good wish. So these are the lyrics from Forever Young by Bob Dylan:
May God bless you and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young
Thank you."
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