tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2879897621126072948.post1127459439701435506..comments2017-08-18T06:23:57.783-04:00Comments on The Life of Pey : Life Through a LensPeyton Lambtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15132305866171208438noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2879897621126072948.post-46591270914332397092013-07-10T17:45:23.084-04:002013-07-10T17:45:23.084-04:00PS- I apologize for misspelling your name initiall...PS- I apologize for misspelling your name initially !!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05955693129475431252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2879897621126072948.post-24283831898835602072013-07-10T17:43:51.877-04:002013-07-10T17:43:51.877-04:00Very thoughtful piece, Payton. One might wonder w...Very thoughtful piece, Payton. One might wonder whether this whole phenomenon of viewing life through a digital prism is, at least in part, symptomatic of American culture’s tendency to avoid reality.<br /> <br />After all, as Jack Nicholson’s character once said, collectively, as a people, we can’t handle the truth.<br />As for me, I am even more troubled by our nation’s responses to events like the Boston bombing. I was born in Boston and have lived near it my entire life. I am entirely quintessencial New England in my blood, to be certain. So, no one can accuse me of being “anti-Boston Strong.”<br /><br />But, “Boston Strong”?<br /><br />Really?<br /><br />To me, it unfortunately became little more than an instant sound-bitten cliché. And when it started to get somehow intertwined with our professional sports teams soon thereafter, as for me, that is when Jack Nicholson’s warning started to rear its ugly head yet again.<br /><br />I fear that we have now deviated so far from our national reality, our compass, our truly unique and blessed historical legacy, our sense of civic virtue and our togetherness, that now we cannot even endure an attack like the Marathon bombing without reducing it to our new virtual “reality.”<br /><br />One of my closest childhood friends was killed on a beautiful, clear day in September 2001. And ever since, as for me I have little space for such prisms in my life anymore.<br /><br />And don’t get me wrong: I say all this as a lifelong avid Boston sports fan to the core.<br /><br />But we should be better than all this. We are so fortunate to live in the shadow of undeniably towering Americans here in Boston. We live on the hallowed ground of the first American patriots. Their reaction to events like the Boston Massacre, the passage of the Intolerable Acts, the quartering of British soldiers in our homes, the Writs of Assistance, etc. was not one of looking through some prism in order to escape harsh reality. Nor was it one that gave rise to empty slogans, used to rally us not to action, but to mere empty feel-goodism.<br /><br />I am confident I shall not make any new friends by what I have just said. And that is fine.<br /><br />But as for me, I would far prefer to see Americans, Bostonians, out on the streets in protest, demanding of their elected officials to do better than to allow folks into our nation other countries have warned us harbor terroristic tendencies toward us. I would rather see us vote in percentages far higher than a vigorously embarrassing twenty percent, for that matter.<br /><br />I would, in short, far prefer seeing that type of “Boston Strong” than the kind that is to be found printed on Bruins t-shirts or held up on cardboard placard at the latest Red Sox game.<br /><br />So, perhaps, the prisms of which you so eloquently speak are to be found both in digital and non-digital formats nowadays?<br /><br />Be strong and keep up the insightful writing, Peyton. Hope we can stay in touch.<br /><br />Bill<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05955693129475431252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2879897621126072948.post-76712563624080298342013-07-09T19:50:23.255-04:002013-07-09T19:50:23.255-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17717867268820098828noreply@blogger.com