Have a good day

A couple of weeks ago I visited a friend in a nursing home. On the way out I shared the elevator with an aide, a middle-aged woman wheeling out a barrel of trash. I was thinking what a tough job it was, and she took me by surprise as I got off, saying warmly, "Have a nice day."

I took her greeting to heart, and it has been a filament of support against bad news -- illness, war, debt, lies and threats of worse. She gave me new ears to hear the Walgreens clerk send me off with that same admonition to "Have a nice day." And the mail carrier and the grocery shelver and the librarian. I'm being blessed by all these service workers, every time they serve me.

That thin filament is weaving itself into a web, a safety net against fruitless worry about how bad things are. Things are still bad. The very lives of all these well-wishers are yet more cause to keep working for a better world. But they tell me to retain my cheer, hope against hope, keep the faith.

You too, gentle reader, have a good day.