Some family heritages are worth celebrating in a book. That view finds support in a handsomely printed volume that comes from Bill Buffett, currently an Arlington resident but born and brought up in Omaha, Nebraska.
Entitled “Foods You Will Enjoy: The Story of Buffett’s Store,” this book recounts the history of a family business that endured for a century. It also shares the atmosphere of a developing American city, one located almost exactly halfway between the east and west coasts.
To mark the arrival of 2009, let me share with you my list of best wishes. In addition to positive selections, be warned about finding here some negative ones as well.
In fact, the negatives may outweigh the positives on this scale of values. As the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich once wrote: “Man’s negations are more powerful than his affirmations.”
As we enter upon either the last year of the 20th century or the next-to-last (depending on how you count), a new spirit is struggling to break forth among the world’s people. Billions of us are looking for signs of hope wherever they can be found.
One such sign has been suggested to me by a friend who is a Lutheran minister. In a recent conversation he told me of the inspiration which he had drawn from a statement by Pope John Paul II. My friend found the papal document spiritually encouraging and urged me to read it. Thanks to the wonders of the world wide web, I have managed to follow his suggestion.
For fear you will fault me for not having yet published any resolutions for the New Year 2008, here now is my list.
You will be edified, I trust, to see how sweeping a character reformation I have planned for this, the newly arrived year. Even though other people tend to keep such resolves in the breach rather than the observance, I pledge to give them the force of solemn vows.
Looking toward Christmas 2008, I recall a story of two friends. (To preserve privacy, let’s call them Nancy and Joanne.) About their relationship, Nancy says “I had the most in common with her of any of my friends.”
They also shared the same house, Joanne as owner and Nancy her tenant. For a long time, that landlord/tenant relationship, though not without some tensions, had worked for them.
Should doctors apologize to their patients when they have made a mistake? Tom Delbanco thinks so.
Himself a doctor, and a long-time professor at Harvard Medical School, Tom urges his fellow physicians to adopt this practice. In an opinion piece on the New York Times web site, he and a colleague, Dr. Sigall K. Bell, argue the benefits of taking this approach to medical error.
“I don’t want to look.” That’s what Carol Lieberman says about some funds she set up for her grandchildren. She fears the money is shrinking in the current recession and financial crisis.
Carol works in Cambridge as director of a program that helps older people to volunteer. Asked if those people are worried about the situation, she says: “It’s not just seniors – it’s everybody, all brackets of society.”