pearwaldorf | (no subject)

You should read Obama's eulogy of Beau Biden. I know it's only Monday, but I feel confident declaring it's the best thing you'll read all week. It is a beautiful piece, honest and heartfelt and written by somebody who obviously genuinely loved and respected him. I cried throughout the whole thing, but starting at this part:

Without love, life can be cold and it can be cruel. Sometimes cruelty is deliberate –- the action of bullies or bigots, or the inaction of those indifferent to another’s pain. But often, cruelty is simply born of life, a matter of fate or God’s will, beyond our mortal powers to comprehend. To suffer such faceless, seemingly random cruelty can harden the softest hearts, or shrink the sturdiest. It can make one mean, or bitter, or full of self-pity. Or, to paraphrase an old proverb, it can make you beg for a lighter burden.

But if you’re strong enough, it can also make you ask God for broader shoulders; shoulders broad enough to bear not only your own burdens, but the burdens of others; shoulders broad enough to shield those who need shelter the most.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, it made me think of Steve Rogers. It feels terribly trivial sometimes, to compare flesh and blood people to characters that live in your head, but those are my frames of reference. And it is comforting, to know there are people like that in real life too.