Monday was the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  With it also fell the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union and the Cold War.  I remembered a gift that I had received the following Christmas of that year from Alice and Chris.  It was a certified sample of the Berlin Wall.  It came in a cardboard box.  Inside the box was a certificate of authenticity.  Inside a cloth bag was a one or two ounce sample of concrete and stone.  It was just a crumbled reminder of a hated symbol of Communism. 

The year was 1989.  Dan was four and Dave was two.  And Anne and I were twenty years younger too.  We all were living in the same house where at least Anne and I still live.  That was then, this is now.  Dan and Dave have grown to manhood.  Anne and I are now twenty years older, but at least we are still together.  It is good to remember history.  It is even better to reflect upon your victories, both large and small.