[poincaraux]

Rick-

Thanks for your post. We've had a good last few days, and one of the things that really helps is knowing that, in all sorts of ways, we're not alone. Also, we're starting to realize that, as much as we've lost, we can still have hope, and that there are still things to look forward to in the world.

On Wednesday, we found out that the parks department was going to put in a memorial for us later that day. My wife called me while I was in the middle of teaching. I found someone cover the rest of my teaching duties for the day while she rushed over to the park. She was there for ~30-40 minutes alone, and was starting to get really depressed. Out of nowhere, three high school students showed up (they were smokers walking around the local neighborhoods on their lunch break) and asked her if she was OK. She said no, and explained what was wrong. Turns out, one of their girlfriends had just had a full-term stillbirth, and one of their sisters had just had something similar. Those three were a surprisingly powerful, and completely unexpected, source of support. It's a bit of a long story, but in the end, they did a lot to convince her that, no matter what we think, there's still good in the world, just waiting to bubble up to the surface.

We used to dance a lot (mostly swing (lindy)), but haven't really danced at all for a few years. We thought it might be good for us to dance a little again, so we brought some music and small speakers with us on our walk today. We found a little pavilion tucked away in the corner of a park where we didn't think anyone could see us, took off our shoes, put on some music and started dancing. About halfway through one of the songs, some lady walked by and started cheering us on. She ended up parking herself in front of the pavilion and watching us for quite a while, and was really fun to dance for an audience. We actually had to stop her from going to get a bunch of friends to watch us, because we were a little embarrassed, but it was all very flattering. It was the first time we've honestly had fun in the last two months.

So, things aren't good yet, but there are some hopeful signs.

Thanks.