Gloria Walther Brought Some Sunshine

We live in a big, kooky city here in LA. What amazes me (and most people outside LA don't know) is that the LA experience, particularly when you become a parent, can be a very enriching, small town-like experience.   You have a close-knit community that might be spread over 30 square miles of dense urbanity.  But a close-knit community nonetheless.

This is the case for our family.  With Grady graduating Pasadena Waldorf School next month, Jo Ann and Jimmy (with me entering the picture eight years ago) have seen Grady grow up with his classmates as a very real family.  They are a single organism, Grady and the kids in his class. It's a wonderful thing.

When little Pablo came into our our lives five years ago, we knew that we wanted to place him tin a preschool that provided the same kind of true intimacy for him.  Our friends Scott and Helen and they son Eli loved their school, the Walther School, in Hollywood.  We went there, and fell in love with it too.

Now, Pablo is getting ready to graduate preschool next month, and we're so deep in the intimate nest of Walther it's breaking our hearts to think he'll be moving on to kindergarten in the fall.

This special small-town warmth came walking in the door of our palatial hotelspital suite today when Walther School head Gloria Walther came in, bearing her usual hugs and smiles and unending love for everyone in sight.

She also brought something that was about the sweetest thing Jo Ann and I have ever seen. Each one of Pablo's classmates made a drawing for him, with a message to him written on it. Gloria laid  in bed with him and read each one. Pablo's eyes lit up as he looked at each one - you could tell that he was visualizing the friend who drew the picture as a huge smile broadened across his face.

It's in moments like this that I see the true nature of humanity.  We are all here to be kind, give and receive love, and smile.  That's pretty much as hard as it gets.  

Jo Ann, Grady and I - oh, AND Pablo! - want to send a HUGE thank you to all the amazing, loving, fun and funny little boys and girls and Gloria and all the teachers from the Walther School. WE LOVE ALL OF YOU, and we thank you for bringing literally a 30 minute smile to his face this afternoon!!!!