In this morning's column Beth says that every day she crawls out of bed and sees on the wall above her dresser "a picture of a graffiti message scrawled on a concrete wall: 'Everything will be OK.'"
Not everybody would appreciate this message. I know some people who think it's naive and even stupid.
At lunch today, Dave and I were talking about aging, one of my favorite subjects. I'm currently reading the best seller "Happiness is a Choice You Make." In it journalist John Leland interviews, over an extended period of time, six people over the age of 85. The oldest of the old. They, by definition, are experiencing tremendous lose - which will culminate in death - soon.
But John Leland makes some remarkable discoveries about how we can experience happiness - no matter what. He found this to be true of himself, along with these oldies.
Gradually I noticed something quite unexpected happening. Every visit, no matter how dark the conversation got -and some days it go quite morbid - raised my spirits like no other work I have every done. I expected the year to bring great changes in them. I didn't expect it to change me.
Beth Kassab says grief is not linear. There are times of feeling OK. And there are ways of helping us get to OK despite what's in front of us.
When I read Beth's column this morning the first thing I thought about was "Everything's Alright," the song May Magdalene sings to Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar.
Try not to get worried, try not to turn on to
Problems that upset you, oh,
Don't you know
Everything's alright, yes, everything fine.
Let the world turn without you tonight.
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