December 31, 1999

Saying good-bye is always hard. As the 20th century comes to a close, the echoes of mind-bending accomplishments and heart-breaking loses follow us out the door. It is a century of extremes: wealth, death, and technological change. But this century, like the past and the next, have at least one constant; people caring about each other. Under the flicker of a gas light or the lumens of a halogen bulb, people have been practicing kindness toward each other since the earliest Homosapiens helped one another stand up straight. The heart swells and the soul soars the same today as it did in the Middle Ages. For every act of cruelty, there have been a hundred acts of kindness. It manifests itself in many ways; a glance and a smile, a helping hand, covering a sleeping child, sharing bread, sharing laughs, just plain sharing. Through war and hatred, self doubt and selfishness, it will prevail. People are good. An easy thing to forget in our busy 20th century lives. But something to remember as we leave this century and enter the next.

Happy New Year.

With best wishes,
Laura Orlando

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