Cardinal Dolan: Synod should support, encourage, the 'new minority' of faithful Catholics
Well, there are a lot of leaves on a tree, but this "leaf" from the book of Cardinal Dolan gives me at least a little hope. The thought of turning over a new leaf reminds me of a story (maybe O. Henry) about a dying girl whose window looks out on brick wall with a tree in front of it that actually touched the wall with its branches. It's autumn and she's convinced that when the last leaf falls, she'll die. She watches the leaves drop and float to the ground one by one by one losing hope as she sees them fall. Finally, only one leaf is left on the tree. When that leaf falls, she knows she'll die.
In her apartment building lives an old man, a friend. He was a painter, but never a very successful one. He too is ill with a bad cold, but there's no doubt he'll recover. Only one day he gets much worse and eventually dies of complications from pneumonia.
Meanwhile, the young woman finding hope in the fortitude of that last leaf, slowly begins to recover. When she's better she discovers that the painter, who loved her like a father, had gone out in the dark, the cold and the snow and painted a leaf on the wall of the building that, from her window, appeared to be attached to the tree's branch. She lived and he died out of love for her. What greater love than to give one's life for a friend.
I guess that's a digression, but let's hope that Cardinal Dolan isn't just turning over one new leaf, but an entire tree full.