Religion

      Graduation time looms large across the nation. Senior year students in high schools, colleges, universities are embroiled in the departure/arrival moments, with all the mixed emotions involved. Applications have been filed, received, and returned with news of acceptance … or not. A sense of finality tinges the excitement of new beginnings with unease, if not sadness. Holding on is as an impelling force as letting go.

  Maybe it’s the season of nearly summer with spring still bearing signs of winter’s chill that is affecting me. Maybe it’s the lingering last days of my college pal suffering with cancer’s invasion on multiple fronts. Maybe it’s the slowly leaking drip of departures opening tears and tears in my circle of friends. I am not sure of the cause, but I am feeling the pain of the effect. There is a heart heaviness I cannot shake.

  I love movies based on true stories. Whether the film replays the events and situations with stunning accuracy or employs a degree of dramatic embellishment makes little difference to me. Whether the source is a book I can read for comparison or facts gleaned from the ‘hero of the piece’ does not concern me. I simply find the moviescompelling.

Those of you who are my age … or a tad older or younger … may remember a silly ditty we chanted as children. It was a round that went like this: “What’s life? A magazine. How much does it cost? Ten cents. I’ve only got five. That’s life? What’s life?” On and on it went and we giggled at the nonsense without ever being conscious of the message.