I don't expect many who read this BLOG post will remember Robert Browning's "Pippa's Passing," and those who do will probably recall, "God's in His heaven-- All's right with the world!"  ...but it's the few who remember that last line near the end of the poem, "But at night, brother Howlet, far over the woods..." will understand why I thought of it today when I walked back to my car from the San Diego Museum of Art.

     The year’s at the spring,

And day’s at the morn;

Morning’s at seven;

The hill-side’s dew-pearled;

The lark’s on the wing;

The snail’s on the thorn;

God’s in His heaven—

All’s right with the world!

.........

"But at night, brother Howlet, far over the woods..."

I was thinking how good life is... David, our son, in Balboa Park today... talked about specific works of art at the San Diego Museum of Art...with Margaret and me... and Pat and Ed from Houston... and then we went for lunch at the cafe next door... and then...

...walking to the car park I saw them... a family of seven... the parents and five children, the youngest in a stroller and the oldest perhaps thirteen… There they were sitting on the curb of the sidewalk with three grocery carts pilled high with personal belongings… in an obvious limbo… waiting for… what?  waiting all in a row for nightfall… and tomorrow… What happens tomorrow?  Today was Tuesday, and the children weren’t in school in the middle of the day.  Prime Minister Netanyahu went back to Israel, I guess. Washington went back to gridlock... more cold weather swept down from the North aggravating the Midwest longing for spring... 

...but at night... far over the woods...