A Return and a Departure

I haven't posted since my 65th birthday on February 4th. Rather than an AARP eligibility induced depression, I came down with a big case of writer's block. That psychological condition comes from having too much to write and time pressure to do it. I've spent a month and a half doing everything to avoid serious writing although I've been able to spew out the usual job related boilerplate. To avoid writing I turned to basic research only to discover a new topic for a book!

My principal has two stories. One about starfish which I really like, and one about a mule down a well which has the punch line "shake it off and step up." I'm trying to do that by writing a SHORT blog everyday and 250-500 words on each of three projects. A thousand words a day, four pages. Let's see how this works.

I'd like to remember Bernie Lawson who passed away on March 1 in Hingham at age 87. Bernie was a retired Braintree teacher who was a modern day Thoreau. He loved hiking and birding. I met Bernie at Sheep Pasture where he walked several times a week into his early 80s. Some of you may remember Bernie as the man with the hiking poles. Bernie claimed he needed the poles for balance, but he was one of those people who seemed ageless. He was a serious observer of nature and a great steward of Sheep Pasture. Nothing in the natural world slipped by Bernie. I really loved talking about bird sightings with him or checking out his tips for unusual activities or problems. Whether it was tent caterpillars-"Watch the cherry saplings, they love cherry leaves" or the spring warblers Bernie was on top of everything. Bernie tramped the other open spaces in Easton and became a real townie. He was very sad when he finally needed to move into an assisted living facility and couldn't find what he needed here, but it will be OK, he told me, "they have a nature trail to walk in Hingham." Your friends will miss you, Bernie.