Lily sent me an article from nytimes.com and a line struck me:

For example, in the 1970s a Japanese photographer, Keiki Haginoya, undertook what was to be a lifelong project to compile a photo documentary of children’s play on the streets of Tokyo. He gave up the project in 1996, noting that the spontaneous play and laughter that once filled the city’s streets, alleys and vacant lots had utterly vanished.

And I could see that scene perfectly in my mind. The sun beating on all the kids who are playing and yelling, bouncing their ball and scrambling around. Then just as suddenly as I imagined it, they're all gone.

It's not as Alfred Lord Tennyson, "'Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all", says it is. Once something profoundly beautiful and upbeat departs, the space it once occupied will always be emptier than how it was before it was ever occupied. [I know, it's a pessimistic take on things.]

While I was searching for the writer of that quote, I came across this one by Margaret Mitchell, "I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken -- and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived." And I remember that quote from years ago when Day wrote it in a letter to me. I don't remember the circumstances or even the letter, but I do remember feeling moved and uncertain and accepting.