Later, I followed as they walked to the beach and built a bonfire, watched these men who had been bullied as children, taunted as teenagers, had to hide their true selves, but who were, now, here, tanned and laughing, fully themselves, inviting me, daring me, to join them. Everything is waiting for you, they seemed to say, in the moonlight, in the firelight, in the joy and beauty of being alive.
