Notre Dame, October 2009
At the risk of my reputation, this is another post about good things. Maybe I'm not the curmudgeon I claim to be. (Damn!)
I have very fond memories of my time at Notre Dame. It is a checkered history, and an abbreviated one: Sep 1966 - Dec 1967 and Sep 1969 - May 1970. I didn't finish my degree there and left after Kent State. I've returned a few times, mostly for football games, even though I am hardly an avid fan, either of football or, in many ways, of Notre Dame.
What I most liked and most fondly remember about ND are the people I met there. Brian McNamara, Chris Loving, Steve O'Brien and John Burrows during freshman year and then Dave Denmark, Phil Balest, Chris Johnson and Tom McDonald the second time. I even met Joe Theismann (Thees-man) in 1967, back before the sports writers changed the pronunciation of his name to more closely rhyme with Heisman, as in trophy.
Of those guys the one I am closest to today is Tom, a lovely man who kept alive the flame of liberal concern for the plight of the downtrodden. At one time he worked for the Catholic Worker on Manhattan's lower east side. He married Liz years ago and has two great children, Dan and Claire.
I just spent the weekend with Dan. He flew to New York and we took in Hamlet at the Metropolitan Opera and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Public. We visited Riverside Church and John the Divine and paid homage to New Haven pizza at Pepe's. We walked in the CT woods with the dogs and I introduced him to Bambi versus Godzilla and Anna Russell. Mostly though we talked, nearly non-stop, about matters important and not so. And had a great time. Call me a sentimental sap, but I think it is just so cool that the adult son of a decades-long friend is now my friend too. It speaks, at least partially, to the quality of people Notre Dame attracts. I've known since the 60s that Tom is one of those people; now I know that Dan is as well. Perhaps it's heredity, I don't know.
I'm not an optimist, but if there are more young people out there like Dan, maybe there's room for hope.
Hey Walter. He is a great kid, isn't he? Thanks for showing him such a wonderful time. As his mother I am a bit partial.
ReplyDeleteWalter,
ReplyDeleteThis is Tom writing, using Liz's Google account to post comments to your blog.
Such kind thoughts about Dan and I. Yes, Notre Dame does tend to nurture good people, YOU being one of them. In our day and age, it is relatively rare that people remain dedicated to their friends to the extent that you are. As St. Exupery noted in the Little Prince (one of your favorite books, no?), "It's the time you waste for them that makes a friend a friend; unique in all the world until the end". What was so wonderful about ND was the opportunities for intimate conversation, often late into the night, about things that mattered. And so, you and Dan have continued the tradition this past weekend. I'm also reminded of a comment by Thomas Merton who, after writing for many years about contemplative prayer, silence, the state of the world, etc. concluded that it was relationships that mattered most to him. We are in good company aren't we?
Thanks again, Walter, for "being there" for Dan, for me and for so many others.
Peace, Brother
T. McD.