A Brightening

It’s the first morning I can recall in ever so long when one of the internet headlines announced “It’s getting better.”

My cup of steaming expresso suddenly tastes even stronger, and I can feel the muscles in my neck relax as I wonder,

“Can it be true......”

Allowing myself another gulp of black ambrosia, I wonder:

“ Have I learned anything from this? What exactly did God teach me?”

My gaze returns then to the luring and yes, inviting headlines streaming across my Ipad.

I read a salacious report concerning the young daughter of an aging American hero.

The picture accompanying the vivid sexual account of the young woman’s unorthodox choices in life shows a truly beautiful female obviously once nurtured. Her long silken tresses and lovely clear complexion appear not to be commercially photoshopped, but bring back memories of other young girls who once traveled along my lane.

Without warning I remember “The Magician,” and the Sunday morning both he (a/k/a my Father) and I were encountered by a neighbor as we walked home en route from High Mass. Their conversation, not unusual for the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, however, was rapidly terminated when Dad heard the words,

“Have you heard about the youngest Murphy girl? She.............”

Dad instantly reached down, took my hand, quickly turned away, and quietly said,

“No, and I don’t want to. Have a good day, Frank.”

Walking down the block, I asked Dad:

“Why didn’t you want to listen? I wanted to hear what Tessie Murphy did.”

This morning, almost a century later, I remembered that April morning and recalled my Father’s reply. I began to believe that the long Covid days of anxiety might have have reminded me about that Biblical lesson again.

Shutting off my Ipad, I said a quiet prayer for the famous family whose world had been shattered this morning by the lurid Internet reporting.

I dared to dream that others who had also miraculously survived the traumatic year of Covid and it’s multiple repercussions might be doing the same and possibly remembering the same message I was given so very long ago.

“Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.”

Possibly, those words are needed even more today than when I first heard them. They could be a more positive version of the current cancel culture.

And once again, I believe “The Magician,” is never very far away and still holding my hand.