This is the group.
Four children.
Five grandchildren. Kat, 20 and unmarried, not to be heard from yet.
Only sweet Dylan is missing. He captured by the British at Oxford U, prisoner exchange to be in June.
Dommage.
Commentary: Monday, June 17, 2019
Death exists to help us bring meaning into our lives.
Help us focus on our activities.
On our relationships.
When death comes we’ll take it in stride if we chose the right path.
If we extracted what we could from each event occurring along that yellow brick road.
What we could from each person met.
Enough to satisfy ourselves.
Gatherings after the death of a close friend or family are not to permit us to count our losses, wallow in misery.
But to celebrate with each other the joys we shared with the deceased.
Why it’s so important to love each other today.
And everyday.
We have a limited number of tubes of toothpaste to squeeze out before death reaches us.
Perhaps twisting open the next tube is cause for a resolution.
Or a refresh of an extant resolution not fully exploited.
Literally to that end, we had a family reunion recently.
Specifically intended to provide a memory as a crutch to help us walk past losses that we know are coming.
With a certainty.
No hiding place down here.
Most of us are blessed with people we love and cherish.
This was a reunion that will support us when the time comes that one of us takes that last step from life.
Mino and Chris.
Good fathers.
Good husbands.
Good sons.
Used to be ranked tennis players. Now, not so much.
Grace on the left.
Twenty minutes ago was onstage winning the right to represent the dance school at a regional wide event in front of 500 people.
Laura on our right, a rising seventh grader at a new school we had the good fortune to visit just two days ago.
Me in the center, having the good fortune to be at Grace’s brilliant performance and with Laura at her new school’s ice cream party for new students.
Laura and I in a tete a tete that I enjoyed with virtually every attendee.
Notice that daughter kat, center, is the same age as grandchildren fran, far right, antonia, next, laura, to kat’s right, and tiger, a family friend, next to laura.
The recap is that the four-day event was a resounding success and will stand us each in good stead against inevitable sorrows.
Springtime in Boston.
Rain and sun all week but always mild temperatures.
The hours are ticking away and if we don’t make the most of our time another day will soon click past.
Unnoticed.
Unappreciated.
Tick Tock.
In clock language:
Enjoy today.
Enjoy the week.
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Postings Count, Weather Brief, and Dinner
Monday, June 17, 2019
Our 437th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 437 posts we’re at the 8.74 percentile of our commitment, the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
Time is 4.01am.
On Monday, Boston will be back at seasonal mild temperatures, a high of 72* with a feels-like of 77* under a mix of clouds and sun
Dinner Saturday was a baked halibut filet. The fish was on sale at Whole Foods, $8.00 off for Prime members. The fish not not as wonderful as halibut should be. I ate it.
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Chuckle of the Day:
Monday, June 17, 2019
Two cowboys come upon an Indian lying on his stomach with his ear to the ground.
One of the cowboys stops and says to the other, "You see that Indian?"
"Yeah," says the other.
"Look," says the first one, "he's listening to the ground. He can hear things for miles in any direction."
Just then the Indian raises his head, "Covered wagon," he says, "about two miles away. Have two horses, one brown, one white. Man, woman, child, household effects in wagon."
"Incredible!" says the cowboy to his friend. "This Indian knows how far away they are, how many horses, what color they are, who is in the wagon, and what is in the wagon. Amazing!"
The Indian looks up and says, "Ran over me about a half hour ago."
We love getting mail.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
Monday, June 17, 2019
Several days ago I sent a joke to Howard D for his take on whether it was objectionable for the blog.
We got this in reply.
From: Howard Dinin
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2019 3:44 PM
To: Dom Capossela
Subject: Dom transcribes a joke and asks if it’s indiscreet for his blog
Howard writes: Holy moly man (and stronger words to that effect)…
You have slowly migrated to creating the most feel-good, Disneyfied, PC, good news only here, white-people safe, where never is heard a discouraging word, with daily comments from the well-wishers cheering you on (the whole aura, as I experience it, of squeaky-cleanness, good vibe, never say a mean thing, goody-goody, at the end of the storm there’s a golden day no-nothingism is so toxic and allergenic to me... I am thinking of taking antihistamines again, which I have not done since I was a teenager) blog on the internet, and you have to ask, having built up a bonfire of all that lovely sun-dried tinder and seasoned wood if I think you may have a problem with fire if you douse it with a little gasoline and light a match?
It’s OK, I guess (obviously, in general, you’ve decided it is, and so far, you’ve not admitted to any blowback—so much for the staunch feminists, of any gender, in the crowd—even with all the misogynistic jokes, and all the really tired burlesque jokes about clueless husbands, abusive marriages, cuckoldry, impotence, and other pleasantries of the human condition, no one seems to mind). So you might as well go for broke, you: even with pre-adolescent, adolescent, and young adult daughters and granddaughters, and see if anyone notices your slight skirmish with #MeToo… I don’t really know, but I guess the worst is that they’ll just say, “Oh that’s just Grandpa Dom…”
In a sense, the more I think about it as I write, I suppose it’s probably OK. It’s possible with your peeps, no one will notice. Though it would be interesting to see how you deal with somebody actually jumping down your throat.
You get your antennae out at the strangest things.
Indiscreet. For you? Actually no. But that wouldn’t make it “right.”
Best answer I can give. And glad to oblige.
xoxo
hhd
Web Meister Responds:
thanks.
you think it's age?
or my daughter's strident cries for justice and fairmindedness and she now encamped in the midst of published intellectuals and ny times editors and the like?
in any case, I rely on you to keep me straight.
Howard answers back:
Whose age?
And given the drift of the Atlantic (and its ancillary publications, especially the digital ones, like Quartz) and given the increasingly unimaginative ways the NYTimes finds to appear to be “balanced” instead of focusing in a significantly more singular way on the solitary principle of truth, I wouldn’t be so sure that Kat is getting the world’s best education in how to look at life.
Better than Fox News, I’m sure, but I think it’s clear enough (or it wouldn’t even occur to you to ask) you have a sense of what’s appropriate—which is the better measure than “indiscreet.” Indiscreet is when you use an actual name of an actual person, even if, or I should say, especially if, the story is true.
I mean, I assume the joke as you related it is probably among the second round of potential defense strategies that were being considered by Harvey Weinstein’s legal team, before he decided to just take the classic route of defending himself by paying out millions of dollars to victims.
You can’t say I’m cynical. I used to think I was, until I began learning that my worst thoughts were in fact what the news channels report is reality.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the “published intellectuals and ny times editors” you allude to (I’m not sure, actually, who you might have in mind—not every intellectual is a devil you know, and I’ve already given my opinion about the actual Atlantic and NYTimes editorial missions) tell each other jokes and and make comments that would make a lot of ears curl.
I have thousands of photos of every description and can find any one of them within 12 seconds..
Good Morning on this Monday, the seventeenth day of June, 2019
We posted a longer commentary on death influencing life, using some family photos as examples of tangible supports useful when we come to miss one or the other.
We posted the Boston weather report, the ticking calendar, and the growing number of posts as a time marker.
We posted a longer email from Howard D and decided that given the length of the commentary and letter not to do a Q and A today.
And now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your love.