By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning, come New Year, we will have celebrated the third birthday of baby girl grandchild, a New Year’s Eve baby. It will be a small celebration with parents and grandparents (preceding, of course, a large celebration on New Year’s Day for the kids).
We will bring a chocolate cake, made by Mary for the occasion, and a gift—the grandchild’s first sled. No complaints about having a birthday this close to Christmas, that I am aware of—only “time for cake.”
Earlier in the week, a first. A bunch of the guys from high school gathered at Sporty’s for lunch, for some of us a first crack at Sporty’s sausage burger. The group, from the BCHS class of ‘76, our bicennential year, brings together in order of seating Bill Whitman, Richard Caruso, Tom Burns, Will Rosshirt, Brian Godbout, me, Don Iacovazzi and Tim Bobroske.
We’ve got stories—and the one to tell them, Tommy—but there is no way to capture all of them in a brief column, except that a couple of us hung around until 3 p.m. And as we headed out, who should appear but a gang from the ‘76 class of SPCHS, including Mike Phillip. Mike led St. Paul’s soccer and basketball teams against ours, so, of course, we had a moment.
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With the new year comes several TBE initiatives. The first is Music Monday provided by photographer/reporter Laura Bailey. In addition, TBE will have its first Bristol book going on sale later this month or early in Febraury–the author, Mike Letendre; the subject, the BCHS boys basketball championship season.
Look for regular updates about these initiatives over the next couple of weeks and throughout the year. At the same time, if you have suggestions for stories, please email me: dfortier@bristoledition.org. (And if not me, anyone of our “staff.”)
And of course, we haven’t pushed memberships, but here’s time for a reminder that we have incorporated as a nonprofit under the Central Connecticut Online Journalism Project, which makes TBE a nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status. We encourage anyone who would like to see a locally owned and staffed online newspaper succeed to become a financial supporter with a regular recurring donation. Click on our the “Contribute” button for details.
Great coverage is a choice that we make together, our “staff” and the community at large. Choose TBE by becoming a contributing member now.
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Reading/listening this week has been mostly George Saunders short stories and essays about poetry. I received Saunders’ latest collection of short stories (a signed copy, too) and savored each one written in Saunders inimitable style about everyday people in everyday (and sometimes futuristic) situations trying to make best of things and falling all over themselves and each other. The collection, “Liberation Day,” is slyly ironic and touching. In one story, “The Letter,” a grandfather writes to his grandson, who happens to be seeking his advice about an important decision in a society where the decision leaves his future in the balance.
The collection about poetry, “Poetry Unbound: 50 Essay to Open Your World” by Padraig O’Tuama, is a gem. Each short essay of maybe three pages follows a poem of O’Tuama’s choice. If school kids had a guide like this, poetry might stand a chance in a world filled with bone-crushing distractions of social media and just as bone-crushing lessons in classrooms across the country.
With the new year comes the tendency to make resolutions and fresh starts. For people who are in this category, and who might be interested in more of a contemplative approach, I recommend the podcast, “Turning to the Mystics with Jim Finley.”
It centers on the Catholic Christian tradition and is a podcast provided through the Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Franciscan Richard Rohr. In each of its seasons, “Turning to the Mystics” takes for its subject a Christian mystic, beginning with Thomas Merton. (Finley spent several years in the same monastery as Merton, and after he left made it his mission to maintain a contemplative practice in the everyday world.) Check it out by clicking here.
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Best wishes a happy and healthy 2023.
Enjoy!
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