There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

On Remembering the Past and Choosing Hope for Tomorrow.

Some weeks feel heavier than others.

The headlines are louder. The conversations a little tighter. The future — which usually stretches out like an open road — can feel uncertain around the edges.

And yet, tomorrow still arrives.

For as long as I can remember, there has been a song that comes back to me in moments like this. It plays inside my head almost without invitation:

“There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day . . . .”

The song was written by Richard and Robert Sherman — the Sherman Brothers — for the Carousel of Progress, first introduced at the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair in New York City.

The fair carried a hopeful motto: “Peace Through Understanding.”

It is hard to imagine a more necessary phrase in any generation.

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When the Seasons Made Sense

March 1st has always been the first day of Spring for me.

Not astronomically. Not technically. Simply.

March, April, May — three months. One Season.
June, July, August — Summer.
September, October, November — Autumn.
December, January, February — Winter.

Four Seasons. Three equal months each. Clean. Understandable. No misunderstandings. No negotiating with it.

That calendar has served well for a very long time.

There was a time — and it does not seem so very far away — when the rest of life followed that same rhythm without effort.

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