Dear Old Folks,
Thank you for everything you taught me. I'm so glad we got to talk about it while you were still here. I'm glad I smartened up in time to realize what a wonderful job you did, and how lucky I was, and say thank you.
Thank you again. I wish you were still here, that I could talk to you and get some reassurance in an insane culture.
You were right. The world is going to Hell in a handbag. The lessons and the values that you taught me are the cure for a lot of what ails our society, but nobody wants to listen. I guess hard work and simple living don't look like fun, I don't know. I guess kindness and REAL charity (which is not necessarily done with a check-book) don't have the ego-boost of self-righteous certitude.
We sure had a good time. Our pleasures were many, our worries relatively few. We sure weren't perfect. We weren't always nice. But we apologized when we were wrong, and we were mostly kind.
I'm glad you're safe in Heaven. You don't have to live the consequences of the choices of the people who laughed at you and built a culture around their stupid behavior. You're where I can't make a mistake that could hurt you now. Next time we see each other (assuming I manage to get there at all), it will be with the eyes of God and none of it will matter any more.
I hope you didn't feel as badly about yourselves in life as I do about myself these days. Thanks, Mom and Grandma and Grandpa, for The Book. The Bible is a really interesting story when it's written in plain English. I was reading the Book of John last night; as it turns out, they laughed at Jesus too. I didn't realize that they laughed at Him His whole life, not just at the end of it. I guess you already knew that, though.
He did the job that was in front of Him. You did the job that was in front of you. I'll try to keep doing the job that's in front of me, and live the values you taught me, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job. I hope you'll still accept me when I get there.
Love,
Me
PS-- "The baby" is learning to play that godforsaken keyboard. My head hurts. I don't know how you had all that patience, Grandma.
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"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"