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Sandy Schram's picture

copper beach

I read Paul's commentary on loss just now through teary eyes, only to discover he was again, still, after he no longer is here, helping me to think anew and imagine unforeseen possibilities. His idea that every death is a disruption that implies not just a loss but a possibility for gain immediately resonated with me (even as much as I did not want to believe it at this moment). I thought of our Copper Beach, a tall, perhaps 40 foot high massive, tree that stood for years on the front north corner of our home at 57 Station Road. If you go by there now, you will not see it: we lost it a few years back after long efforts to keep it alive. It was so sad to see it go and, of course, I was convinced I had done something wrong (Joan, my wife, is less prone to these second-guessings). Yet, quickly the rhododendrons all around the tree starting growing due to the greater sunlight exposure, and they have become massive, beautiful, colorful additions to our front yard spring flowerings. All made possible by the death of our much beloved Copper Beach. I think that Paul is Bryn Mawr's Copper Beach (not the tree on the quad near his office). May his passing be the basis for a greater flowering of the intellectual diversity he so long so eloquently championed.

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