April 6, 2015

Holy Saturday morning I rose, covered the delicate plants against a freeze (Did it come? Probably not) and drove to Atlanta. Linda and I went to Easter service at North Point (our Saturday afternoon service was one of eight or ten they have in order to accommodate the shocking thousands of people who want to attend). I found it moving, and could see why thousands and thousands come, though I could not put my finger on exactly the attractive element. At All Souls the Mystery is shrouded behind ceremony and tradition, which gives it majesty, yes, but not the immediacy of North Point, which tells the story as though it had happened yesterday and no one but us had ever heard it. It’s child-like, but in a sweet and exuberant way. I looked for things to object to, but everywhere was openness and exuberance, and I became open and exuberant under the influence. I think the effect rather depends on novelty, even a little shock, but for the moment it was what I needed.
   
David and Daniel had had a weekend first of charity exhibition boxing and then of with fraternity antics in the wilderness, which left them both a little spent, but also glittering with healthy and heedless young manhood. I cannot even imagine what their lives are like. They are the boys whose lives I could not imagine in college, handsome and athletic, the center of intrigues they didn’t even know of. Nothing is past them. Every path can be considered. No one shrugs off their friendship. They are whom I think of when I hear the phrase, “Lord, shield the joyful,” for certainly a good deal of privilege goes into their lives, but my response is “so what?” They did not ask for it, nor do they rob anyone else in having it.  It’s also puzzling where their god-likeness came from. There’s not any precedent in my family, nor from their father, who was and is a nebbish. A Visitation, I suppose. Most particularly they have each other. I have never seen two young me so comfortable with one another. David is naturally and Daniel is studiously kind. We watched their boxing matches on the Internet.
   
The redbuds were in titanic flower over the mountain toward South Carolina, and slashes of pure yellow lit the forest where jessamine climbed a tree. We watched the red moon rise over their deck Saturday night.