By Rick Wilson
Days of rage and they wear on you. Television, newspapers, social media – a relentless chronicle of addiction to agitation. Choreographed conversations to keep the peace. It’s bad enough that the sun seems to be more rumor than reality these days. The positive used to share time with the negative, it seems to have to elbow its way on to the scene these days.
It will drain the energy out of you if you let it. So we have to put the gloom and doom in its place. Can’t and shouldn’t ignore it but kick it off center stage. Smile at the simpler things that we take for granted. Those wonderful times and pieces of life that put a smile on our individual faces.
Do a Tim Gaffney. The Litchfield County Sports czar is a guy that focuses on the better things. -Relentlessly positive, he could find a smile in the bottom of the port-a-potty. So in my reject the rage mode here are a few thoughts and things that at least keep the balance and keep me smiling.
Baseball game on a sunny, warm afternoon.
A juicy sausage outside Fenway Park.
The smell of freshly mowed grass.
Block Island
Watching my wife organize
A drive in the middle of the fairway.
A Larry Bird video.
Linguini and Clam Sauce (white).
A Rick Reilly column, Jack Clancy book
A summer afternoon on the deck at Fairview Farm or Norbrook Brewery
My son saying I love you at the end of every phone conversation
Talking with my son
Sunday breakfast with Bob, Fred and Dave
Morning walks with Marilyn, Sue, Patty and Barbara
Abraham Lincoln and Ben Franklin
Long Beach Island in the summer.
Yale Bowl
A Geno press conference
Waking up Saturday morning and realizing you can roll over and go back to sleep
Watching teams winning state championships
A book and a blanket
A book and a beach
The passion of Dickie V
Conversations with Fred Williams
Concerts at Woodstock (Bethel Woods)
Witnessing the unprecedented success of the Hurlbert / Sanson family
Air Force Ones
Disney World
Running into Billy and Rick Neller
Going to the Watertown Meat Market (one of my favorite places)
Browsing the books at Barnes and Noble
Writing a story that makes readers feel
Caledonia Golf Club in Myrtle Beach
The smell of bacon
Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Potato chips
Life with the wife
Boy Kitty
The generosity of Patty Kelly and Tony Turina
High school sports
A good Bloody Mary
Turn off the phone, shut off the television and bask in the glow of the cool stuff.