They’re still mourning in New Jersey. The Statue of Liberty wears a frown pulling down her usually stoic brow. There’s been a drought but you wouldn’t know it, because New York Harbor has been replenished by tears. It has spread, of course, to Boston, a pandemic of a different kind. We’ve lost our favorite daughter. It’s not the same around here anymore. Oh, to simply know she was here! Even if you didn’t see her. It somehow made everything okay. And the sun would shine a little brighter. I’m so certain that it did! We have people who measure these things. There’s a chair in the corner where she used to sit. Once upon a time, there was a look that was given! Center seat was my favorite! Because she could look effortlessly without being too obvious or craning her head. But when she did, that was big!! From that third seat on the left, her neck would turn ninety degrees!! And as we’d pan up above her, she’d poke her eyes over just before she disappeared! And you’d die!! Oh, how you’d cave inside!! It was like she sucked all the life out of you, played with it like a hacky sack! A tap of her foot! A bounce on her knee! Before kicking it back to you! And you’d moan, “Oh, what did you do to me!” She gave your life back! And somehow improved. Because she touched it. And everything glowed so magically!! And now the chair is empty. Sure, someone will fill it. And someone may fall in love with that person. But nobody will ever grace that spot in the shining way she filled it. And memories are all you’ve got. For somebody who forgets more than he remembers, the memories of her are forever embers. Burning long after the fire that consumed. Please “Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” as the old play pleaded. Except Jimmy is gone, and she is still alive! She’s just getting started!! But, boy. It sure feels empty around here. You wonder if she will ever return. The lighthouses even as far out as Cape Cod light a little more mournfully. What’s the point of searching, they’re saying. Even my light can’t find her if she’s in another ocean altogether. And they turn to me! That turning to the closest reminder of the person to deal with their loss! “Hey, you were the crazy one who sent all those flowers!! Surely you can regale us with stories to make her feel a little closer.” And I remind them I never got very far! “It doesn’t matter,” they say. “Help us get lost in the memory of days of such grandeur.” Being a guy who likes to reciprocate I say, “Okay. Well, where do I get started!” And before you know it, I’m talking about her eyes, and my own get a little misty. I blame the virus! I must be coming down with it! “But you tested negative!” they say. “Shut up already! Who’s telling the story?!” And the whole thing breaks down into disarray!! Nobody knows what to do since you went away, so it’s become all this in-fighting! How does one make sense of the senseless?? “Was it a boy?” “Who?” “The one who dragged her away?” “Well, doesn’t it always go that way?” It’s all simply too unknowable! We’ll never know the why, but we know the how. We’re all struggling to accept the final result. One person’s gain is the loss of half a country. If you look from space, the West side is on fire, but the East side is sinking in tears and windswept rains. And we remember that every bad has a little good in it. Like that yin and yang symbol. Those two little fishes, one black, one white, with each having an eye the color of the other. In this world of duality, you can find the good in anything. Sometimes it just takes a lot more looking! Her leaving created so many tears the long-feared drought is over. Plants are popping up! And someone says to the flower, “Why bother! She’s not even here.” And the flower answers, “Hey, bud. I’m just doing what I’m doing!” Life goes on, and perhaps that’s the greatest reminder. The East Coast’s loss is the West Coast’s gain. “But they don’t deserve her!” And people will take sides over a potential Los Angeles/Boston NBA final by the colors the teams wear. Rooting either for or against the gold and purple aura that lights even brighter. The colors you always saw around her in a haze when she appeared. And now she’s there, closer to the Los Angeles arena, although be it a bit north. Rooting either for or against the deep green that represented all the growth that took place in you. She places such deep roots. The Irishness, that blossoming clover, three petals, but it’s one petal short. You needed that fourth one to make it lucky. A green clover with four leafs might have prevented her leaving. Oh, what does it matter three leaves instead of four leaves? The fact is she’s leaving. She’s left. She leafed! To put down roots somewhere West. And you’ve moved farther East of Eden to the Land of Nod, by virtue of Eden moving West. Indeed, Heaven follows wherever she is. Wherever she goes. She’s protected like that. A white light around her. Carrying her. And keeping her safe. And the one in a Cape Cod lighthouse dims and loses its fire. If you look closely, you can see it crying. Tears of rain streaming down the old white brick of it. She lit up everything! She had quite a reach! Like those old 1920 radio stations of a hundred years ago! The excitement of a child picking up a station from Des Moines with his little home-built crystal set! Yes, that was me. I was ten years old at the time. Well, not really. But something like that. The light of her. Oh, how it traveled! The whole Eastern seaboard was in unison over her! North and South? Forget it! Blue states and red? Not a worry over here! They’ve all blended and gone purple! A purple wave! Because that’s *her* color. The blending of her blues and her red. And we all were kinda united that way. We saw past philosophies and looked to the heart. We all have our egos and personalities. But what’s going on underneath all that mind noise burned into us because of our upbringings and experiences? Is there a heart deep down in there that is loving? In the end, that’s what really matters. But, here we are. All fighting again. Because we lost our commander. Our angel. Our beautiful goddess we all took shelter under. That’s how the West was won, I suppose. Vagabonds and voyagers. Escaping for greener pastures. And freedom in a new land where there were fewer rules. “Go West, young man,” somebody says to me (and being kind with the descriptor). But as far west as I can go is the kitchen fridge, to drown my sorrows in plant-based ice cream. Sadly, it’s still just as fattening. And I straighten myself up. “Well, this is silly!” I say to myself. “You figured it would always go this way! You can be friends with anybody, it seems. But with her it’s simply not meant to be.” The one who matters more than anything. But you breathe again. You watch a Sinatra documentary – four hours long. Oh, it’s the best one you’ve seen! And you practice your singing. And when he sings, “That’s Life!” well, you feel a little bit better. We all take our lumps. If ever I had to have my heart broken, I’m so happy it was her! Because everything she does she does with a velvet touch. It doesn’t hurt as bad as if it had been another. Her beauty always soothes, even when it’s preceded by that pain of, “Ah … (and your heart wrenches in your chest) … How is it she can be so beautiful today?” She’s already the most spectacular woman you have ever seen. And somehow, someway, she finds a way to top the untoppable. It’s simply in her nature to do that kind of stuff. That kind of thing. Placing the bar so high up, and then dancing over it effortlessly, just to rub it in. So that’s the part that hurts. But sooner or later that soothing comes over. Always. All the time. Her beauty has a way of doing that. Too. The East Coast’s loss is the West Coast’s gain. But the West can’t take the love away. No, that part stays right where it is. Right in your heart. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is getting to that! You’re protected, too, in that regard. And like Sinatra, you come out of the pain somehow changed. A person who has now experienced both sides of life. And there is a richness and a texture, that wasn’t there before. Something more attractive. And people relate to you, a little more than before. They see you, and they say, “That guy, he knows how it is. He’s been there, too.” People become more interesting as they get older, but only if they’ve embraced the pain, and then found their way through it. Instead of running around it. No other route will do than through it. And you come out with a bit of a light around you, too. She’s always teaching you something. And let’s get real. She shines from anywhere. The boy might need a more powerful crystal radio, but her signal is undeniable. And you’re not alone. They’re crying from places that have all claimed credit for her! From Delaware to countless boroughs in New Jersey. To the big time of New York City. Even in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. “She was in Vermont last year!” a voice reminds! And that someone silly usually traveling in an “L” shape, from Hampton to Boston to Cape Cod’s sandy beaches, if he’s lucky. There are historical blue markers everywhere. “*YOUR Name* Was Here,” in whatever fashion. Everyone wants to claim just a little piece of her. Because she’s someone so extraordinary. And everybody is so much better for having known her. Forgive us, we’re just a little emotional over here. All these Jewish and Italians folks! The Irish among us, too. We’re not shy about expressing! People of all colors and creeds! Black and White, and all shades of brown. Gay, straight, bi – whatever they are, gender conforming or non-conforming. Everyone’s hearts are touched and love runs a little deeper. It takes all kinds to make a world. We all love you so much. You’re the girl who made it! You’re the woman who changes lives on a dime. So, please, come back to the 5 and dime … maybe someday. Hope springs eternal. In the meantime, we promise to give our best smiles. No matter how far you go, no matter how many miles you’ve traveled. You’re always in our hearts. Beauty such as yours simply doesn’t come around this way very often. But when it does, as yours surely has, it stays with you forever. ❤️  

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Happy Tuesday! I got a new podcast thing coming. Just sayin’! By the end of the year. On YouTube, and stuff on Tik Tok (just search my name). And Spotify? You can already see I have no clue what I’m doing. But a guy’s gotta do something! As for you, oh, please keep on doing what you’re doing! You touch hearts so deeply. Near or far, it doesn’t matter. It’s always the same result. 

You’re magic. 🌟🥰  

🍀  

YAY!!!!!