Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2003, on the beach of Duck, North Carolina. The beach was NOT Mattie's favorite place to be when he was one year old. In fact the sound of the ocean and its vastness scared him. Mattie wasn't wild about the sand either. All of that changed with time and subsequent visits to the beach. But you can clearly see Mattie wasn't happy here and that his eyes were on the ocean at all times!


Quote of the day: The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. ~ Albert Einstein


Peter and I got to Boston safely on Tuesday night, after a nine hour drive. Given that it is a holiday week, in all reality we made very good timing. We just covered a great deal of territory and by the time we arrived we were thrilled to be out of the car.

Our day began with this wonderful sighting!!! Peter's mom has a hummingbird feeder in their backyard and THROUGHOUT the day this feeder had a visitor. It is a glorious sight to see hummingbirds buzzing on by and the irony is they are not at all disturbed by our presence or the fact that we were watching them. Mattie would have absolutely loved this sighting. In fact in Barbara's backyard Mattie saw his first chipmunk. Mattie loved watching the chipmunks and even nicknamed one of them, "Chippy." Mattie loved Chippy so much that he wrote a story about him in kindergarten. Something his teacher absolutely loved and we cherished. Mattie created not only the story, but illustrated it through his own drawings. 

We all drove to Salem, MA, today to visit the Peabody Essex Museum. The Museum has a fascinating new exhibit as part of its permanent collection. Literally within the museum is a merchant's house, Yin Yu Tang, that has been relocated piece by piece from southeastern China to the Museum. Walking through the house gives you an immediate feeling for aspects and values within the Chinese culture such as family, tradition, and symbolism. In all reality, I am not sure photos or paintings would have elicited the same feelings. There is something very tangible about walking through a house, seeing the rooms, seeing pieces of furnishings, and hearing about the family's life through an audio tour. This particular house was in the Huang family for 200 years and the house saw times of prosperity and times of great strife. Within this house 40 or more family members lived together and being a woman in this house meant a full day's labor from cooking, cleaning, and caring for children. Children did not have it easy either as they had chores such as cleaning out the chamber pots. Nonetheless, it was clear that family was everything and just like some of us would have a calendar in our homes to remember appointments and other special dates in the year, this family had an historical family calendar (a calendar of generations!). Literally each family head was listed on this calendar along with birth dates and anniversary dates for these individuals. On those dates (even if the date was in reference to a deceased family member) no other plans or parties were celebrated so as to focus upon and pay respect to the family leader! I attached a link to the house in case you want to take a virtual tour of what we experienced today. It was a unique cultural experience and glimpse into history. http://www.pem.org/sites/yinyutang/

When we came home from the Museum, soon there after Peter's family cat died. She waited to say good-bye to her loved ones! She died peacefully in their kitchen, but since we recently lost Patches we understood the emotions of losing a furry family member. In fact, today's loss reminded us of the pain of losing our Patches on March 21. Life is not the same for us without Mattie and Patches!

This evening, we went to visit Peter's brother and his family in Newton, MA. After dinner was over, it was funny, all the men went into the family room and watched a Red Sox game and all the women stayed in the kitchen to talk. We talked about books, loss, grief, and even technology. My niece who is soon to be 15 years old was part of our girl's conversation. She was very introspective and sensitive and it was wonderful to hear her perspective on different topics. It turns out we enjoy reading many of the same books, so books gave us an entry point into talking about other things. I am always impressed when I meet a teenager who enjoys the art of actual conversation, embraces eye contact with you, and wants to hear what you have to say. It is refreshing and instills my hope for the next generation.

On a funny note, I am quite sure I passed at least 20 Dunkin Donut stores today. Honestly I wouldn't believe this if I didn't see this for myself. I have come to the conclusion that two things are a guarantee in Boston..... you have to be a Red Sox lover and your coffee of choice is from Dunkin Donuts. The quantity of stores speaks for itself!