Photos, Panforte, and Prayers

I'm racing the deadline to create photo books online of the times we've shared with our grandchildren and have the finished products mailed back in time for Christmas. It's a tradition I began when they were very young, but missed doing last year, so I've had to go through two years of photos that Phil and I have taken of Z and B.

That's what led me to make this year's panforte my blip today (smaller than last year's, but from the same bakery in Siena), so I could spend the bulk of my time reviewing hundreds of photos.

But then I read that President Obama was going to speak at an interfaith service in Newtown, Connecticut, where Friday's horrendous school shooting took place, and I wanted to be there in spirit with that community. So Phil and I gathered around his desktop computer and watched together as clergy from a variety of Protestant churches, the town's Roman Catholic church, the Baha'i Faith Community, the Al Heydaya Islamic Center, and Congregation Adath Israel prayed, read from their holy texts, and supported each other and the town, particularly those who lost loved ones, as they have done unceasingly since Friday.

I hope that Barack Obama's words reach the hearts of every American -- that caring for the children of the nation, all the children, is "our first job. If we don't get right, we don't get anything right. Can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we are doing enough to keep our children -- all of them -- safe from harm?"

"If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We are not doing enough, and we will have to change.

"We can't tolerate this any more. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change."

May it be so.