A Memory from 2016

I am back in Boston, safe and sound. Started the day on a 7:40 flight in New Orleans and landed in Boston at 8:30. 

I have had many moments of laughter this weekend. In addition to the humor of my adult sons, I went to this school fair designed to raise money.  I spent the time fascinated with the band. It was great. At some point, I decided to join the younger people dancing in front of the stage. For two hours I never stopped! Various people guided me with some of moves. There were hugs and kisses with various women (couldn't help but think of Joan watching me).  It was great. 

And now I am having such humor in my first flight in first class. Recalling that after my mother died when I was 13 and my sister was 8, we were never hungry but our diet was limited. I remember how much I was impressed by the quantity and quality of food when I entered the seminary. I was like a child in a candy store! I remember the experience of Joan's saying yes to the proposition of joining me in life. I was like the child in in a candy store traveling to graduate school in California. We camped along the way and I felt ecstatic. And then we had Sara. I remember vividly having this new born say-old child in my arms with friends.  I can recall treasuring my VA work experience, recalling my letter to a priest who taught me that if priests that I knew worked as hard as my fellow VA staff, the church would be in better shape. And then, so much more, ending up in this weekend with sons, dancing with young people, and now treated to this first class flight where hot towels are brought to prepare us for supper, drinks provided, I am not aching secondary to cramped space, and attention given me as though I was special. I tell the flight attendants that I feel like the child in a candy store! 

One could say that it takes nothing to make me happy. It may be true because I have generally been happy with every aspect of my 78 years of life, including my experience as a priest. I got in much trouble promoting Vatican II ideas, crusading for civil rights and protesting our involvement in Vietnam, but I was fantastically energized. Being on a "crusade" was literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I treasure the moments and its effect on me. Many events later are later experienced as a child in a candy store!