At some point today, and we're hoping to be present, my youngest brother, Adam, becomes a Superior Court Justice in the State of New Jersey. Unlike being my youngest brother, he had to earn that honor, Your Honor, and it suits him well.
I'm smiling thinking of how our parents must be smiling as they look down on him. Yes indeed! 'Up and at 'em, Adam Ant!'
Two different and (maybe) related events happened yesterday. I am perhaps their only point of intersection.
I was out walking briefly and encountered a bandy-legged toddler, not much more than a week into solo walking (I'd guess). He moved as much side to side as forward, all the while with a smile so wide I imagine you could see it from space. And how he laughed! I can remember our two children being about his size (I don't guess ages on anybody, much less miniature people) and giggling as they slowly walked until they were grown and gone.
The toddler's mother was close at hand, far enough away he felt that he was on his own, but still near enough to quickly intervene should she need to (knowing the difference between those two states is an art). As we passed one another he stopped and looked me up and down (he came to just above my knees) long enough for one of us to relish the journey ahead and the other to regret the trail sometimes taken, and then, as unsteady as ever, he moved on.
Later in the day, I fell across an old feature I'd bookmarked a decade earlier on Ray Bradbury. I have read, or owned, nearly everything he has ever written, so keep your 'I didn't even know he was still alive' remarks to yourself. Titles such as Dandelion Wine, Fahrenheit 451, and unending short stories to include And There Will Come Soft Rains, are as fresh to me now as when I first read them six decades ago.
The article noted Bradbury describes himself as a 'delicatessen religionist', inspired by Eastern and Western religions, who believes that "Joy is the grace we say to God." I am not good at arithmetic so I don't how many incidents and accidents in a particular sequence had to occur for me to have found this in the vastness of the Internet after an encounter with an advance scout from the Next Century.
His observation that "I jump off the cliff, and build my wings on the way down" takes my breath away. I've been watching the days draw down without ever understanding what happens After This Song Is Over, but I'm thinking, maybe, now I can fashion a truce with myself to get farther down the road. I've had as much trouble with the journey as with the destination and I may never get that sorted out but I guess I'll know when I get there.
-bill kenny
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