Seven Years

It's been seven years.  Seven years ago today, your journey on Earth ended. 

I had visited you, with my spouse, four days before. 

Life has gone on since.  One of your granddaughters married in the past year.  Another one is having her engagement party tomorrow.

I hope you don't know what has been going on here in the United States.  It would distress you so, I know.  Your parents were Holocaust survivors and good people.  You spent part of your life as an elementary school teacher.  You loved children so.

Today, I went to a local music festival.  I think you would have enjoyed it.

This was the 20th annual (in 21 years - one year cancelled due to COVID) Blues on the Bridge, a free concert event featuring local bands from the Binghamton, New York area.  Ironically, it was you (and your mother) who brought me to Binghamton for a short visit, back in 1972.

I never suspected I would spend much of my adult life here.  Life takes people in strange directions.

Let's pay a short visit to the festival (more tomorrow). 

Since I used to work a few blocks from here, I knew there was a flower garden a few hundred steps away. 

Ah, there it is!  You would have loved this pollinator garden.

The first group scheduled to perform did a cover of the iconic "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.  They felt it was important that the festival goers hear the song.  Written by Steven Stills, the song did not begin as a protest song, but it's thought to be just that by many today.

I think the song is timeless. In the years since, it has been covered by so many artists. Some of the lyrics apply just as easily applies to our times today.

So, today, friend, I am thinking of you just as I do every September 17.  One day, the cancer that took you from us will be conquered.  But can we conquer ourselves, our drive to hate the "other", some of our impulses?

For What It's Worth.