The television images, from Los Angeles, have been terrifying, apocalyptic.
It has felt, at moments, as if you've been witnessing the end of the world.
And then, on Thursday, as the fires continued, you watched the funeral service for President Carter, at Washington's National Cathedral.
There was the precise and calm order of the funeral. The gathering of the Carter family. The sequence, notably, of the seating arrangements for the President and the First Lady, the Vice President and the Second Gentleman, the Clintons, the Bushes, former President Obama, the former Vice Presidents, and former Second Ladies, and the soon-to-be-restored President, and the returning First Lady.
There was the quietly moving order of the scriptural readings, and prayers; the music (choral singing, and the lovely solo rendition of "Amazing Grace"); the affecting tributes--including those from President Biden; from Rev. Andrew Young; from Steven Ford, delivering a eulogy his late father, Gerald Ford, had written years ago for his good friend; the warmly personal words from Jason Carter, grandson of the late President.
The funeral for President Carter, at the cathedral--this counterpoint to the devastation and trauma in California--had a soothing effect: the honoring of Mr. Carter's life of service, and devotion, to his family, and his faith, to his community in Plains, to his country, and to the world.
