4th of July in Boston

Boston during the week of Independence day is like living in the past. Actors walk around in period costumes, history coming alive with events in old building like the reading the Declaration of Independence in the old State house, walking the Freedom trail with a character of the past - in my case Mother Goose - the Bostonian writer of nursery rhymes; played by a delightful part time actress also wearing the clothes of the 17th or 18th Century. Hearing cannons firing and muskets shots as the actor re-enacted imagined events in history.

We walked all over the city from Boston Commons to the Harbor front, eating six different types of Chowder during the Chowder fest in Washington Street, listening to concerts at the harbor front followed by fireworks over the bay. The next day, we went on a whale watching cruise with thoughts about Moby Dick; when catching whale was the main economic activity back in the day in nearby Nantucket. The obligatory visits to excellent museums like the Museum of Fine Arts and the singular Isabel Gardner Stewart Museum quenched the artistic side one normally gets when visiting a city.

On July 4th, we went to the JFK Library with it's magnificent location along Boston Bay in solemn solitude tucked away within the University of Massachusetts. A beautiful exhibit worthy of the tragic life commemorated in I.M Pei's elegant architecture. One's feels a certain fire and rebellion in the city with echoes of revolutions and rebels, of the Sons of Liberty and the Kennedys. The city seemed like an old world of simple truths with the fight for righteousness clear and valiant, mixed with times of victory and tragedy. Boston felt like a world lost in time; away from the confusion and tribalism of modern times.

 

Returning back to work refreshed as if Boston had clarified what was vital and important amidst the turmoil and confusion at work. I did a Toastmaster speech on my Boston visit in a cramped room with too many people, the visual aid not working so I had to improvise by holding my lap top screen in front of the audience. I completed my monthly reports, participated in department meetings and feedback sessions, attended a town hall, wrote emails summarizing the current status of a new project I was working on; in short back in the rat race.

A played a good round of goal on Thursday with my partner and I finally wining our round in the last day of the first half of the tournament, biking on Friday and swimming in the pool on Saturday morning. Afterwards working in the yard and dismantling a pergola to make way for my new enclosed back patio and deck at my backyard ; the construction nearing 2 months with the builder often sick or not feeling well because of the heat wave or depressions due to his recent divorce.  A few hours earlier as I wrote this blog entry, an assassination on a presidential candidate portend a grim future like all hell is about to break loose.