It’s springtime!

The world is falling apart!

Crocus and daffodils are out and forsythias are yellowing and trees are greening and the light is changing!

Democracy is at risk throughout the world, including in Israel and here!

Spring!

Conflict!

New life!

Present danger!

How are we supposed to figure this out? What are we supposed to do?????

It is unfortunately much easier to point out problems than to come up with solutions, but it seems that beauty can strengthen us. So go to a park, or to your own garden. If you can, walk there, and glory in the early spring.

Meanwhile, we at the paper always are pleased to hear about the people who have read our paper, and have taken some action based on something they read.

Last week, my husband and I went to Livingston to hear Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, a singer whose music I thought I’d be deaf to but whose words I loved when I interviewed him. I was wrong about his music — he’s an astonishing singer, and even those of us too musically philistine to appreciate art songs can be blown away by the beauty of his voice and of his soul as it comes out through his voice — and I was right about his words.

It was a wonderful program.

There were more people there than expected, and it seems that the size of the audience was due in some small part to the story I’d placed in both our papers. Maybe that’s just what I want to think — but on Sunday, a woman figured out who I am. She told me that she lives in Wayne, and she had just gotten to the story of Mr. Russell, which had been in the paper the week before. By the time she had gotten through half of the story, she realized that she wanted to hear him. The program started at 3:30, it was 2:30, it was in Livingston, she was in Wayne — and she was in the audience when the program started.

And she loved it.

And so do all of us.

We hope our readers keep reading, keep hoping, keep planting, and keep in the sunlight.

—JP

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