netter's last post got me thinking, she spoke about happy endings in her stories, and I thought of an ending line that I might write to a story. The fairy tale ending is of course: and they all lived happily ever after.

I think the most likely happy ending for Mr. Cloudy would be something like: "and they all suffered, but none of them suffered alone."

I suspect you won't find this terribly happy.? But I would consider it great consolation, because I think the Buddha was right that suffering is ubiquitous. We all suffer -- it's something we all have in common. And sometimes we can deal with it and sometimes we cannot. But suffering increases when it isolates us, and so, in the moments I'm a praying man, I'm praying that none suffer alone.