Good news!

Sometimes you just need to read a happy story in the news. Especially in the middle of a summer beset with oil spills, tea partiers, unemployment, disappointing politicians, journalists who only know how to report what Fox News tells them is important. Oh, I could go on, but I would only depress myself.

No, I've been searching assiduously lately to find some light at the end of the tunnel, some bright spot on the horizon. It turns out Gail Collins has been searching, too, and she expounded on what she has found in her column in today's Times.

Now, I always read Collins' columns because she is of my generation and has lived through the history that I have lived through and has come to some of the same conclusions about that history that I have. It's always satisfying to read someone that you agree with. It reinforces your beliefs (prejudices?) and makes you feel smart. Especially when that writer has the intelligence and wit of Gail Collins.

Anyway, today in her column she was talking about presidential children. It must be very hard for those kids caught in the relentless public eye through no wish of their own, and yet some of them, especially recently, have turned out extremely well. Collins mentions Amy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, and Jenna and Barbara Bush. In spite of the poisonous political atmosphere that they all grew up in, they have all turned out well. They are all upstanding citizens who contribute to society and make us and their parents proud.

What brought the subject of presidential kids up, of course, was Chelsea Clinton. In case you are one of the few who hasn't heard, she's getting married this weekend. She's 30-years-old (Can she really be?) and her own woman, a hard worker with, apparently, a strong mind and will of her own. She's been planning her wedding for a while and it will be as she directs!

Her wedding is the social event of the season in New York and is the most coveted invitation of the summer. Although I often get emails from both of her parents, I haven't received my invitation yet. Maybe it is lost in the mail, but even if it doesn't come I'm proud of Chelsea and I wish her well. Same for Barbara and Amy and Jenna.

Maybe there is hope for us after all. Maybe they are our hope.

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