By Sal Giarratani
Love Father Ronan’s Column
I love reading Father Jim Ronan’s reflections in the
Clergy Viewpoint column. His latest installment, “Lost And Found,” was enlightening as usual.
One quote from his piece said it all to me: “As we go forward with the losses and fines of our life, look around. There is some new insight and experience awaiting us and God is behind us all the way.”
The other evening, I was on a harbor cruise. First, I traveled outward and saw the city skyline fading in the distance. Then, on the return trip back to the wharf, I could see the city looming larger and larger in view.
Many of us grow up in one place and then later in life can be found in another place. I started off in the South End and Lower Roxbury because my dad’s job was at Boston City Hospital. I travel back to my old stomping ground today, and I feel like an alien in my own land. A part of me wishes to be back there, and another part is glad I left.
Our lives don’t follow a straight line; that would be too easy.
We live with twists and turns. We find our way. We lose our way. We seem lost, then we seem found. We are confused, and we are clearheaded.
Charlestown was a big part of my life, both yesterday and today. I have seen it go from $150 rents with utilities. I have seen the so-called invasion of the yuppies some 40 years ago. I have seen housing costs soar to the skies. Things constantly change because to change is to grow.
Father Ronan talked about our lost-and-found mindset. We hate losing anything. However, sometimes it’s okay and preferable to lose old habits, old angers and old thinking.
Like Father Ronan basically said, it may seem God is giving us too tough of a struggle in life, but God never gives us more than we can take on, and I truly believe this.
Over in France, there was national mourning after Notre Dame fell prey to an accidental fire. The photos of the burning church and the towers crumbling were heartbreaking. However, it reminds us that we need to find hope in our future and not be worried about what is lost in the past.
Buildings may crumble, but life is a forward -moving thing.
Charlestown living is like that, too. I can stand in Thompson Square today and still see the station and trains above. It still exists in my memory as clearly as yesterday, but I know that life is gone, and I live today in 2019. Do I miss what is lost? Yes! Do I want it back? No!
I am more concerned about my future and what is still yet to come.