Archive for the 'Friends' Category

With Deepest Sympathy

Good manners, and a sense of doing the right thing, came home to roost recently.

A colleague and warm acquaintance—I’d be pressed to say “friend”—lost his wife early last spring. I was added to an email list of “close friends” who received weekly updates on her progress fighting cancer almost as soon as it was diagnosed the previous fall. The situation was dire, and the outcome known. It was really just a matter of time.

I felt that any contribution I could make—not really knowing the family or other friends copied on these updates well—would seem somehow trite if not offensive. So, I read and soaked up the outpouring of love and support from afar, amazed at the tribe this couple had supporting them during their excruciating ordeal.

The wife… Continue reading

Dennis Kucinich in Manchester

We had an unexpectedly interesting day yesterday. Our friend Anne was presenting a workshop in Manchester, so we decided to meet her at Shaskeen (an Irish pub) on Elm mid-afternoon. She ran late, so we sipped stout and Guiness while doing our saved-up Sunday crossword puzzles. About an hour later she showed up, and while we visited, Dennis Kucinich supporters started rolling in and moving to the back room. We decided to hang out to hear him. Hopeless campaign perhaps, but he may be the only honest, not hampered by contribution “strings” one in the bunch. He was delayed by other events, natch, so we waited and chatted, got interviewed by students from Durham, Franklin Pierce, and Keene, as well as the Nashua Telegraph, and… Continue reading