The Power of Holding Hands

[Guest guest]

The Power of Holding Hands By Rabbi Harold Kushner

I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a

girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate

sandcastle by the water's edge, with gates and towers and moats and internal

passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came

along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the

children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard

work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the

shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build

another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the

things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spent so much time and

energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships to other people

endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have

worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only the person who has

somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh.

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