[Wolfstar]

I don't have the entire ping list from the Reagan Library trip, but this is a tribute, first to Jim, then to all of you who went to the library. Thank you so very much for opening your hearts — and, in Rabid Dog's case, beautiful home — to a waif like me who cares so very much about the message you help to spread.

From "Great Heart" by Johnny Clegg...

There's a highway of stars across the heavens
There's a whispering song of the wind in the grass
There's a rolling thunder across the savanna
And a hope and a dream at the edge of the sky
And your life is the story of the wind
Your life is a story like the wind

[Wolfstar]

In honor of the man we went to visit last Sunday...a metaphorical raising of our glasses in a loving toast:

"Song of the River"
by William Randolph Hearst

The snow melts on the mountain,
And the water runs down to the spring,
And the spring in a turbulent fountain,
With a song of youth to sing,
Runs down to the riotous river,
And the river flows to the sea,
And the water again
Goes back in rain
To the hills where it used to be.

And I wonder if life's deep mystery
Isn't much like the rain and the snow
Returning through all eternity
To the places it used to know.

For life was born on the lofty heights
And flows in a laughing stream
To the river below
Whose onward flow
Ends in a peaceful dream.

And so at last,
When our life has passed
And the river has run its course,
It again goes back
O'er the selfsame track
To the mountain which was its source.

So why prize life,
Or why fear death,
Or dread what is to be?
The river ran
Its allotted span
Till it reached the silent sea.
Then the water harked back
To the mountain-top
To begin its course once more.

So we shall run
The course begun
Till we reach the silent shore.
Then revisit earth
In a pure rebirth
From the heart of the virgin snow.

So don't ask why
We live or die,
Or whither, or when we go,
Or wonder about the mysteries
That only God may know.