A lot of elder citizens in suburbs west of Boston are stirred up these days about their property taxes. That’s why some one hundred of them turned out for a meeting in the Wayland Town Building two weeks ago to make the case for coming to their assistance. Several of their state legislators were there to listen, along with Senate President Tom Birmingham. That President Birmingham came to Wayland was, by his own admission, a rarity and it underlined the importance of the occasion.
Passover/Easter
Each year it is an event to which I look forward. Bob, a dear friend of longstanding, invites us to take part in a Seder. We gather, some ten or so in our community, along with Bob’s family members and a few other friends to celebrate the feast of Passover. Most of this community does not come from the Jewish tradition; nonetheless, the event holds deep spiritual meaning for us all.
“Celebrity” Read
“Here’s a prize for the student who guesses correctly the year in which I was a fourth-grader in the public schools of this town.” That was my opening gambit on entering a classroom at the Hosmer School in Watertown two weeks ago.
I was there at the invitation of the school, along with various other guests who signed up to read to the students for an hour or so. What a privilege to interest young students in an activity that will be among the most important in their future lives. And what fun as well!
Maud’s Passage
She lived three doors away on our short street and, at age 96, ranked as our most beloved neighbor. We all knew her as a woman who felt passionately about life and who approached daily living in the spirit of adventure. Always anxious to find out for herself what was real, she had a reputation for risk-taking.
In her twenties she lived in Paris and met James Joyce and his wife Nora. Maud also got acquainted then with Ernest Hemingway. Decades later, at age 79 she traveled alone to explore parts of Africa and returned changed by the experience.
Jimmy Carter
By near universal opinion, Jimmy Carter has proven the most successful of the United States’ former presidents. His work on behalf of people in need both here at home and in other countries has won him an acclaim much more broadly based than what he received while in the White House. That’s why I looked forward to meeting him.
My encounter with President Carter took place recently at a press conference sponsored by the American Society on Aging. Before giving the keynote address to ASA’s annual meeting in Orlando, he had agreed to answer questions about his new book, The Virtues of Aging.
How Do Ideas About God Change with Age?
At a press conference he gave in Orlando, Florida two weeks ago, former president Jimmy Carter took questions centered on his new book, The Virtues of Aging. Having just read the book myself, I asked Mr. Carter a question bearing on his spirituality, a subject that sometimes comes up in its pages.
Specifically, this was what I asked: “Do you find, as an older person, that your ideas about God have changed in any way?” Mr. Carter clearly found the question provocative and responded to it at length.
Fernand
The photo album lies open before me as I reflect on our chance meeting last July in the south of France. Fernand Henri Daubeze by name, he sits on a plastic chair on the terrace outside the Résidence Club of the 3rd Age where he lives in retirement. This residence is located in the city of Vichy, an old city famous for its history and its waters.
Fernand Daubeze embodies some of that history because he played a small but significant part in it. Now aged 92, he sits with dignity and the hint of a smile looking out toward me as I snap the picture which will serve as a memento of my short visit with him.