Day Dreaming – Tom Finneran
Friday, November 20, 2020
I can’t wait. There are grandchildren to hug. There are friends to see. There are places to go and things to do…………….
There are also people to thank, foremost among them the researchers and scientists who seem to have smashed all historic norms associated with the development of crucial vaccines. Their work is worthy of the greatest respect and the highest praise. Their work will save the lives of millions of people and restore the livelihoods of millions more. Talk about meaningful work. They are in service to humanity. God bless them.
We approach our indoor season warily. We know that the virus remains in our midst and we know that Old Man Winter will keep us bundled up in awe of nature’s chill. Sleet, snow, ice, and howling winds lurk around the corner, thus making this the perfect time for catalogues and day dreaming.
I’m an old-fashioned guy and I much prefer holding a print catalogue rather than scrolling down a soulless computer screen which measures my every twitch. I can mark up my catalogues. I can scribble a note in the margins of my catalogues. I can doze off with my catalogues and then wake up to resume my day dreaming of future joys.
Three catalogues command my attention during these winter months. Beekeeping, gardening, and travel catalogues are my pleasant addictions.
Beekeeping speaks for itself. Those industrious little creatures are a delight to every garden. They have estimable work habits, and, in a good year they produce honey to be shared with neighbors and friends. In a very good year, they will also survive the winter and provide the first joys of Spring.
Gardening catalogues are like early reports from Winter Baseball Leagues and spring training games. They are a tease of what’s possible, an emerging hope for a great season. New varieties of flowers and vegetables are presented as if they were candidates for Rookie of the Year. The new varieties stand beside the legends, the old reliables. In baseball terms the reliables are the Kalines, the Mays’, The Musials, the Williams’, the Gibsons. In gardening terms, the old reliables are lilies, lavender, sunflowers, marigolds, trumpet vines, tomatoes, and stringbeans, always steady, always there. I love those gardening catalogues.
Travel catalogues of course are the ultimate escape. Talk about bucket lists! Talk about possible traveling companions!! Spouses, grandchildren, golfing buddies, history buffs……………..
Here are a few thoughts---rafting down the Grand Canyon with the grandkids; a week in Rome and a week in Paris; Morocco, Greece, Israel, and Turkey; South Africa; cruising the Caribbean; New Zealand and Australia; the fjords of Norway; exploring Alaska; our National Parks, including Yellowstone, and Yosemite and Big Bend; cruising the length of the Mississippi River; the Civil War battlefields; cross-country drives from coast to coast………………..so much to see, so much to do.
It’s time to go day-dream some more. Another catalogue just arrived.
Tom Finneran - former MA Speaker of the House
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