Día de Padre

Today I saw something that restored my faith in humanity. After a long day moving - consolidating households, organizing, and getting rid of the detritus of my quasi-bachelor lifestyle - I decided to take a walk in the neighborhood.

And while I was walking I happened to pass a small house, from which the sounds of Mexican music were playing. I looked, and could see around the corner to the back yard, where two Hispanic-looking little girls were seated at a picnic table filled with food and condiments, the leftovers from a cookout that had ended. The girls had their chins cupped in their palms, and they looked giggly.

Nearby on the lawn a bald man and a woman in a sundress - mom and dad, I think - were dancing closely to the music, swaying back and forth with broad smiles in the late light of an almost-summer evening.