Folded thought of the day:

You people really break my heart, do you know that?  I received 
so many wonderful and thoughtful replies to yesterday's 
posting that I just sat reading my email and smiling in my sad 
way.  But I feel less sad when I realize that there are so many 
good-hearted people out there.  Thanks.

Unfortunately, the shooting that I wrote about yesterday 
turned out, by day's end,  not to be the most recent U.S. 
shooting.  It turns out someone went into my old neighborhood 
in Seattle and continued this horrendous trend.  

But I don't want to write about that.

There used to be this great little grocery store in that 
neighborhood (Wallingford) called Food Giant.  I think some 
big chain bought it out after I moved to New York.  I used 
to go there and get coffee (really?, in Seattle?) every morning 
before I went to work.  The coffee girl knew me and there was 
this middle-aged man who worked as a cashier who knew me as well.  
I'd always get in his line no matter how long it was.  I 
don't know why, he just seemed a little sad too and I liked 
to talk with him.  He was in the Korean War and he wore loss 
in his eyes.  But he was always so nice.  

I don't know where I'm going with this.  It's just a good 
memory.  I didn't know those two people but they always 
treated me like a real person, not just another body that 
was coming down the line.  

So, as many of you pointed out, people do treat each other 
nicely, it just doesn't make the news.  And although I do 
believe we are losing our sense of community, I also realize 
that Below the Fold is becoming its own community of real 
people.  Yeah, you don't know me and I don't know you, but 
we share our thoughts and spend time each day with 
each other.  And that's not so bad.  

So, I'm a little less sad today thanks to you.  And let's 
keep striving to make this world a better place, one 
day at a time.