AFFIRMING LIFE

The Sun is Shining When You Visit Old Friends

It’s one of life’s simplest pleasures

Selfie of the author with her friends

There’s so much wrong with the world, and there’s also so much right.

I’ve just finished observing two Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and a third is on its way, starting on Monday night. The third, Sukkot, is the fun one, where much of our celebration ends up happening in a hut that we’ve made to last eight days. This hut symbolizes — among other things — the impermanence of life.

“Impermanence” brings me to my motivation to write this piece, fresh after having observed the exhausting holiday of Yom Kippur, where we are asked to fast for 26 hours. One wakes up from said holiday somewhat cleansed, exhausted, and so, so happy that we have another whole year before we face the day and the fasting again.

The day before Yom Kippur, I went to lunch with two dear friends whose bright, shiny faces are in the photo above. Tom, my former tennis pro (the tall guy with the beard), now lives in Colorado (yes, that is my old stomping ground, as I grew up in Denver). He stopped coaching me seven years ago when our club went south and he and his wife headed west.

But we’ve got history, and in one simple lunch, we get to relive it. It’s not just about…