Sod of Destiny
A clear-eyed poet once observed: “Everyone has their Lenox story.” Here’s ours. A beautiful August afternoon, Sunday at Tanglewood. My wife and I have come to hear the Boston Symphony, who will be playing...
Author: John P. O'Grady
Old Air
Step through the weathered French doors into the clubhouse dining room. It smells like old air. A gilt frame mirror hangs precariously on the wall near the door. Try not to look into it. ...
Instances of Waiting
Waiting for an order in Guan Yin’s Chinese take-out. It’s a holiday week in our resort town and things are busier than usual. For instance, I’m sharing the waiting area with a stranger and...
Red Wings
I need new boots for an upcoming trip to the high peaks. The old ones are falling apart. So I make a long drive to an outdoor gear store located in a fancy shopping...
Looking for Four-Thirty-Three
We had been traveling through the high country for days. Mountains and canyons and too much sun. Along the way we skirted a lonesome, treeless tarn. Beyond that rose a steep gravelly slope crowned...
My Friend Stops By
I’m expecting my friend to stop by. He’s just back from a long trip and says he has something to show me. As I’m waiting for him to arrive, I sort through the day’s...
Wrong Number
Phone rings. Take the call. “I’m calling about the apartment you have available.” “I’m sorry, there is no apartment. Not here anyway.” “The ad in the Pennysaver says there’s an apartment. That’s why I’ve...
The Shadows of Doubt
“We all have our ghosts,” a friend of mine is fond of saying. Perhaps he is more haunted than the rest of us, for he believes that ghosts are behind all human passion, animating...
Grocery List
The other day I was in the supermarket and spotted somebody’s grocery list lying on the dirty floor. It was in the gluten-free aisle. The paper was grimy with the tread marks of a...
Irish Studies
Learning a new language requires one to enter an unfamiliar, sometimes unsettling world. In 1985, I spent the summer in a small Irish village faraway on the western end of Galway Bay. My idea...