Every Tuesday, my college friends made a point to have lunch with me to hear my dad’s weekly letter in which he gave us his take on everything from weasels in the garden to weasels in the White House. Here I post occasional letters honoring his practice while offering my own “take” on daily life as a retiree discovering a new hometown while responding to the world through poetry
Tuesday Letter – July 28, 2026
What to do when it’s too hot for outdoor sports, or even a brisk walk? Why go into AC at a movie of course! Thanks to AMC’s Stubs A-List subscription, we cooled ourselves off watching 6 blockbusters in 14 days! https://www.amctheatres.com/faqs/amc-stubs-a-list
- Young Washington tells us how, in admitting that his pride caused his first command to end in disaster, George Washington began to become a compassionate leader. Rated 92% by viewers on Rotten Tomatoes (aka the Popcornmeter), “B” by the Rami
- Moana – Live Action is a re-imagining of the story of a demi-god who is forced to face the consequences of his selfish actions by his conscience in the form of a feisty child. The music is as engaging as the original, the animated sea creatures are less scary and the chemistry between the human stars, Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia is funny, funny, funny, until it’s warm. It got panned by the Popcornmeter but the Rami rating is “B+”.
- In The Odessey (stripped to the bare bones of the poem, with a 21st century spin) one journeys with Odysseus through his psyche as he attempts to name, claim and make amends for his sins. Popcornmeter 97% Rami Rating “B+
After a week of repentance and redemption at the movies, we headed for
- Hadestown, the live stage recording of the Tony Award winning musical, that eases the audience out of tragedy with a salute to “The world we dream about, and the one we live in now.” Exactly right for today. Popcorn meter 97% Rami Rating “A-“
then back to
- Disclosure Day. We were speechless at the end of this when we first saw it, and almost so the second time. It’s streaming now, so I would see it again and again just to watch Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) evolve but she’s just one piece of this prophetic story written and directed by the master, Stephen Spielberg. (Prophetic because The US government released the first set of files on UFOs on May 8th, just before the movie was released) 80% Popcornmeter, Rami Rating “A”
- And we have reservations for Spider-man, opening day!
PS – If you don’t want to go out, stream The Sheep Detectives in which a shepherd is murdered and his flock solves the crime. It’s a Rami Rated “A” movie for the whole family!
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53 years ago, we were married on my brother Joe’s 17th birthday which makes him 70 years old today. That means he’s been alive for a little more than 20% of the time the United States has been a country. 20% of 70 years is 14 which, in terms of a nation’s life, makes the US a teenager. Today, Joe is growing wise, Art and I couldn’t be happier, and the US is having an identity crisis.
After the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signatory to the Declaration and physician to the Founders, remarked that while the war had been won, the Revolution would be successful only if future generations had a moral education grounded in the principles found in the Bible, England’s rule of law and the Enlightenment. (He went on to found Dickenson College and initiate the idea of public education in Philadelphia.)
My appreciation for the founding principles come from a love of Scripture and History, but mostly from my dad, an “IrishAmericanCatholicDemocrat” (Yes, all one word!) who embodied the shared principles of Faith and Country, and my mom who would recite the Cardinal Virtues when we asked what she hoped we would be.
The Cardinal Virtues/ The Principles
Prudence: “…is the first of all virtues in a statesman.” George Washington
Justice: “…with Liberty and Justice for all.” Thomas Jefferson
Fortitude: “Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.” John Adams
Temperance: “Republican government presupposes the existence of virtue in the people.”
James Madison
Faith, Hope and Charity:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (Italics are mine.)
My Resources, thanks to my AI assistant.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) Cardinal Virtues — CCC 1805–1809
George Washington’s — Farewell Address (1796)
John Adams — Thoughts on Government (1776)
James Madison — Federalist No. 55
Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father by Stephen Fried (Author)
And Books:
Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick (Author) Letters
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May 25, 2026
May 25, 2026
May 25,2026
Sturbridge, Mother’s Day, 1996
I jumped out of the car and greeted my mom with the cheerful ditty from Camelot. “It’s May, It’s May, the lovely month of May…”, and my brother Joe laughed. “That is so you, Beth,” he said. “Still blissfully naïve.”
That was thirty years ago, and lovely is still my choice of lyric, although lively could be a close second as May is a month full of celebration: May Day, May the Fourth (be with you), Cinco Dia Mio and Mothers’ Day, family birthdays (Art, Brother Bill, JVD and SAE), and a myriad of graduations and new beginnings everywhere for every generation.
A new beginning for me is my morning routine – Awake by 5AM, I sit on our third-floor balcony and watch the moon.
At 5AM the western sky is lit by the moon, except when it’s a new moon, and then it’s pure black. Imagine the conversation around ancient fires as people wondered at the light that stays constant through the seasons, yet changes with each sleep.
(Children intuitively measure time in cycles – The answer to the question, “How many sleeps until _____?” is made tangible by making an “X” on a calendar as soon as they get out of bed.)
I have pages of notes on the rabbit holes I traveled down with my AI assistant on the first of May. I learned that the 28-day calendar is a construct of our age in an attempt to honor the feminine within us, but that doesn’t even work with the moon’s cycle which is 29.5 days.
I learned that the ancient Egyptians developed the first solar calendar for economic reasons, and that Western society, with the help of the Catholic Church, standardized Solar time, and I remembered most of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers that Copilot listed. Co-incidentally I began reading a novel set in Mexico just after Spanish rule was established there.
The novel’s protagonist, Juan de Tonañaes, is searching for Juan the Indian who, according to the Spanish Viceroy, is misleading the natives by preaching a “distorted” gospel to the native peoples that embraces them and their culture; a gospel that sounds to me very much like the one that Pope XIV teaches.
Links:
Julie Andrews sings “It’s May” from the original cast recording of Camelot
Goodreads review of Not Even the Dead by Juan Gómez Bárcena
Pope calls treatment of migrants in U.S. ‘extremely disrespectful’ — USCCB
It’s May, It’s May… and there will be a full moon on the 31st! https://www.calendar-12.com/moon_calendar/2026/may
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May 2, 2026
“On the nineteenth of April in seventy-five, hardly a man is now alive…”
Kosciuszko statue at Williams Park
Good morning from Williams Park in St Petersburg, FL where stands Brigadier General Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish military engineer, who gave 7 years of his life to the American Revolution. (He designed West Point!) On this Patriots’ Day, let’s remember the other little-known men and women who risked their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor”, beginning with my family’s ancestor, Pierre Blanchard. When I was growing up, my dad would invoke the story of an unnamed relative who was a cook for General Lafayette whenever he wanted to inspire us to live by American ideals. When my sister-in-law dug into our ancestry, she discovered that Pierre did not just serve Lafayette, he was his secretary and translator, and he was one of five relatives from Canada who served in the Continental Army. Clearly those ideals are in our blood! And what are those ideals? In 1918 William Tyler Page’s “American Creed” was officially accepted by the House of Representatives as the “Secular Creed” of the United States. “I believe in the United States of America as a government of the People, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed… established on the principles of freedom, equality, justice and humanity…” 
The American’s Creed
Which brings us back to Brigadier General Kosciuszko. Unlike our famous heroes, he and my 5x Great-Grandfather were probably not remembered, except by their families, in great part because their first language was not English. It’s important that we remember them, and all our immigrant brothers and sisters as we begin to celebrate all the good that is our country on this, the 251st anniversary of the ride of Paul Revere. Paul Revere’s midnight ride, April 19, 1775 — On this day 251 years ago, a silversmith on horseback set in motion the events that would spark a revolution and birth a nation founded on the ideals we carry forward still.
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St. Petersburg, FL April 6, 2026
Dear Ones, We saw only one car as we walked toward the bay to watch the sun rise on Easter Morning. We found an empty bench at first light, wondered if the grackle that hopped between tree and ground was one bird or a pair taking turns feeding their young. Cyclists swarmed along Bayshore Drive, their glo-vests reflecting each other’s headlights. A few runners were shuffling as they ended their run, while others kept up a banter as their paced picked up in the dawning light.
As blue light began to show hints of pink, we spotted a fisherman in Vinoy Park, and, as if to signal his success, gulls began to squawk.
We thought the boat’s mast ahead of us unusually tall until the blue light was gone and the pink began to fade into yellow. The mast was not tall – the boat to which it belonged was just fifty feet away! White light began to fill our vision, and we wondered at the haze. Two ladies, who looked like my grandma in hats decorated with ribbon, lace and plastic eggs, began to greet all passers-by with a cheerful “Happy Easter”. I felt as I did when I was eight, frustrated with my mom because she was cooking when we were meant to practice solemnity on Good Friday.
And then… as a point on the horizon began to glow orange, people paused all round us, but no one blocked our view. I watched the sun rise in silence with a crowd. In response to Art’s whispered question “Are you ready to go?” I nodded, turned to the ladies, wished them Happy Easter and skipped away (well, almost…I am over 70 😊). Morning had broken and so had my reverie.