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Author: Anne Cassidy

In Praise of Service

In Praise of Service

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When Dad posed for this shot he was younger than my youngest child, a 21-year-old man with a skip in his step and (though you can’t tell it from this picture) his heart in his throat. It was terrifying to be a tail-gunner in a B-17 bomber, to fly across Germany with the enemy shooting at you, to return to the base in Horham, England to see the empty bunks of those who didn’t make it back from their own bombing missions.

So of course I’m thinking about Dad on this Veterans’ Day. But I’m also thinking about Drew, my brother, a civilian in harm’s way, using his skill and knowledge to protect our country.

How important it is on Veteran’s Day to thank those who are not yet veterans, who are still in active service, or even those not in the military at all, but who nevertheless risk their lives to keep us safe and free.

What Unites Us

What Unites Us

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“We’re talking about the country, folks. What kind of country are we becoming?” Dan Rather, November 9, 2017.

Dan Rather turned 86 on Halloween and just published a new book called What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism (written with Elliot Kirschner). He spoke with columnist Jonathan Capehart last night at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, seeking to bring perspective to a world where fake news vies with the real thing.

Rather’s 44-year real news career at CBS News came to an end not long after papers he used to report a story on former President George W. Bush’s National Guard record were questioned as fraudulent. But that was more than a decade ago, and Rather has moved on. His News and Guts Facebook site has almost one and a half million followers. He’s embraced by millennials.

“I’m just a lucky reporter,” Rather said, not a philosopher. But he spoke about ideas and ideals, about the difference between patriotism, rooted in humility, and nationalism, rooted in arrogance. “Our nation suffers from a dearth of empathy,” he said, and in answer to one young woman who asked what she could do every day to counter the nation’s negative tone, said “help others.”

Some of Rather’s most pointed comments came when he talked about the state of journalism today. “A free press is the red beating heart of democracy,” he said. And, “the news is what the public needs to know that some powerful person doesn’t want them to know.”

What moved me most was hearing Capehart and Rather read from What Unites Us, in particular a passage about the importance of books:

“Our nation was born in a spirit of fierce debate. Our Founding Fathers had sharp political differences, but they were almost all deep readers, writers, and thinkers. When they set about to create a modern republic, they went into their libraries and pulled out the works of philosophers such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. They consulted the Greeks, the Romans, the philosophers of Europe, and the Bible. They revered the power of the written word and how it enabled a nation free from the whims of a king. As John Adams wrote, a republic “is a government of laws, and not of men.” A government of laws is a government of reason, and a government of books. That was true at our founding, and we must ensure that it remains a hallmark of our future.”

Are We There Yet?

Are We There Yet?

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A month ago was too early, though I’ll admit I sneaked an aural peak and listened to the last two choruses. But a few nights ago, I started from the beginning. It was November. I’d waited long enough. It was time for The Messiah.

Let others drag out their Christmas decorations a week after Halloween, let retailers stock the shelves with tinsel and ornaments and candy canes. If I’m going to rush the season, it will be for only one reason: to hear Handel’s great oratorio.

The piece is always just a playlist away on my little iPod. It’s all I can do to keep myself from listening to it all year long. But civilization has its constraints, and so I hold myself back. One can’t play a piece every single day and still love it (the scores of LaLa Land and Les Miserables being prime examples). I want more than that for The Messiah.

And so, I waited. I didn’t listen in April, and I didn’t listen in July. To my own persistent, “Are we there yet?” I said, “Not quite — but soon.” But finally I could wait no more. And so, on November 6, almost a month before Advent, I pushed play.

And there were the familiar pulsing strings, the pause, and then … the tenor: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” I felt the weight of 11 months roll off my shoulders, the cares and troubles of other seasons. They’re all behind me now. It’s time for The Messiah.

Just in Time

Just in Time

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I knew I should have voted yesterday morning, but I went for a walk instead. And when there was a meet-and-greet at the end of the day, an important one featuring our board members, I went to that, too, knowing I couldn’t stay long, but also knowing I have a way of letting time slip by.

Which is what happened. When I looked at my watch, it was 5:20’ish (I love my watch, but it’s a small oblong tank-style timepiece that’s never been easy to read), so I said a hasty good-bye, grabbed my things and dashed off into the cold rain. If I ran to the bus stop I could make the 5:30. I did, but I didn’t. A long 10 minutes later the ART 43 pulled up. By then it was 5:40. The polls in Virginia close at 7 p.m. It would be close.

The Metro gods were with me, and I reached Vienna before Marketplace was over at 6:30. I didn’t want to know the exact time because it would make me more nervous. So I turned down the radio and drove off into the night, which is when things went south. I caught every red light. On the winding, two-lane section of my route (which is much of it), I drove behind a car going 20 m.p.h. in a 35-m.p.h. zone. I was practicing all the deep-breathing, perspective-giving tricks I knew, but I was still in panic mode.

I knew that putting Democrat Ralph Northam over the top was not only my job, that other Virginians were taking this seriously, too. But embedded in my mind were the close votes of the past: Keane and Florio in New Jersey in the 1981. The 2000 presidential election. I’m a big believer in every vote making a difference — because every vote does — and mine was stuck behind a driver who must have cast his ballot in the morning.

When I pulled up to the polling place I still had no idea what time it was, but I knew there were only minutes, if not seconds. Someone yelled “you still have time” as I sprinted toward the school, but I still expected the door to be locked.

But ahhhh, it wasn’t. And ahhhh, the nice people at the registration desk were still there, calmly asking my name, which I calmly gave. And then I took my precious paper ballot over to the table, carefully filled in the five circles, and slid the paper into the machine.

“Have a good evening,” said the man at the door, as he handed me an “I voted” sticker. Only then could I glance at my phone for the exact time. It was 7:00 p.m. on the dot.

Eerie Light

Eerie Light

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I was braced for near darkness when I stepped out of the office yesterday. What I got was far stranger. It was one of those cloudy late afternoons when the light has no discernible source, and it throws you off balance. The low rays are supposed to slant over buildings west of the bus stop — not seep from the north, south and east. Removing this vital cue confuses and unnerves. Is it almost morning or almost night?

Only one thing to do, and that is hurry. Book it to the bus stop, hop in, zoom away. Once to Rosslyn, though, the light was even stranger. Big banks of clouds were forming over the river and the light had a greenish cast. If this is Eastern Standard Time, you can have it. 
Luckily, it was totally dark by the time I arrived above ground at Vienna. No more eerie shimmer. Now just the glare of headlights heading toward me. 
Fall Back

Fall Back

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Ah, yes, “fall back” — the extra hour of sleep, the long morning. It was all fine until about 5 p.m. Then the early darkness (especially with yesterday’s clouds and rain) and the news from Texas of the country’s latest mass shooting made it all too clear that we’re heading into the dark days of the year. 

How do we face the darkness? With light, of course. For me, quite literally. I dusted off the full-spectrum lamp and brought it upstairs.  That and clean, fresh laundry, the sweaters aired, a small but growing pile of things to give away — make me feel better equipped to deal with this pared-down season. 
It’s the illusion of control, that which makes me feel I’m doing something about things that are completely beyond my puny power. Under the clock of one of my elementary school classrooms was this proverb/warning/joke:  “Time will pass. Will you?” Seems like a good season to remember it.
Round Number

Round Number

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Yesterday morning I hit a round number: 2,300. That’s the number of posts I’ve published since starting this blog more than seven and a half years ago. That’s a lotta posts!

What have I been blathering about with all these words, all these zeroes and ones? Walking and writing. Cities and suburbs. Work and leisure. Summer and fall. Observations and exhortations. Mostly, just noticing. There is some merit in that, I’ve decided.

And there’s gratitude (that word again) that the challenge of putting these observations into words hasn’t lost its luster over months and years.

Truth is, I love words. And when words add up to numbers, I like them, too.

Two Kinds of Gratitude

Two Kinds of Gratitude

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I don’t keep a gratitude journal — but I do keep a journal into which I occasionally pen thankful thoughts. And in the process of doing this I’ve noticed that there are at least two kinds of gratitude — forced and spontaneous.

Forced gratitude is what I summon when I’m walking to Metro on a cold, gray morning, wondering why I’m still slogging into an office, or on a leaden afternoon when the words aren’t flowing and it’s so late in the day that they never will. This is when I make the mental list: family, friends, health, income, productive work, words and music.

Spontaneous gratitude is what I feel when Copper is running at me with a Day-glo yellow ball in his mouth, all eagerness and joy. Or when I’m hanging out with the girls, individually or together, or even just talking with them on the phone. Spontaneous gratitude comes on walks or in quiet mornings like this one: clocks ticking (two of them), a cup of hot tea, an hour before I have to leave.

While it’s tempting to praise the latter gratitude over the former, in truth we need both kinds. One is our steady companion, the other a funny visitor, an outlier relative who once rode a motorcycle across the West. While you hope he’ll stop by often, you know he never will.

Pedestrian

Pedestrian

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While each terrorism event evokes shock, horror and the sickening realization that it’s happened again, each has its own particular stamp of sadness. Yesterday’s was familiarity — I’ve walked that path often — and the pedestrianism of it all.

While terror has struck crowds of pedestrians before, they’ve never been at places I know so well. This happened on a late autumn afternoon, the perfect time to hop on a bike or stroll a walkway with a splendid view of the harbor and the Hudson. If last month’s incident was an assault on the concert-goer (an all too familiar theme), yesterday’s was an attack on walking itself, on the pedestrian.

Not just pedestrians but the pedestrian: “lacking inspiration or excitement, dull.” And of course that’s the point, isn’t it? To make even the most quotidian of tasks an opportunity for mayhem. The retort is pedestrian, too. We will keep riding, keep walking, keep being ourselves.  It’s pedestrian, but what else can we do?

Self and Silliness

Self and Silliness

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Halloween has snuck up on me this year. Being out of town for a few days, being busy … But here we are on the day, little ghosts and goblins getting geared up for their big nights on the town.

I’m thinking about some of the girls’ best childhood costumes, which were made by their grandmother: a colorful clown, cuddly lion, tusked elephant and a seal made out of some sort of naugahyde fabric that I can’t even imagine cutting, let alone sewing.

Then came the in-between years, when make-up replaced masks. One year Suzanne went as some sort of a sprite or spirit with greenish skin and lots of eye shadow.

On Halloween we can pretend to be something we are not. But that was often the case when raising young children. I might be called on to cackle like a witch or moo like a cow at any time. The line between self and silliness was thin to nonexistent.

Now I’m myself all the time. As the girls would say … borrrrring.