I was quietly sipping coffee at 6 a.m. on the morning after the first presidential debate, when suddenly a volley of loud bangs sounded near our house! A minute or two, and it happened again. I looked at the dogs and grumbled to them that either someone with firecrackers was making a point about the debate or the Revolution had begun. Yes, I do talk to my dogs (I’m not in trouble until they start talking back).
But the bangs went on every few minutes for about an hour. At one point I thought I could smell gunpowder through the open windows, and then a little after 7 a.m. it stopped. Our local newspaper, “The Bridge,” later revealed that after several Concord residents called them the Concord Police discovered that the cause of all this was not firecrackers, nor the start of a revolution, but rather a band of waterfowl hunters, entirely within the law, secreted in a remote spot off of Warner’s Pond, shooting at waterfowl as they flew by. Reflecting on the amount of gunfire, there were either a lot of hunters, a lot of waterfowl, or the state of marksmanship in Concord is somewhat deficient! (Last week’s issue of “The Bridge” revealed that evening fireworks in Bedford for “Bedford Day” caused more concerns and calls to the Concord Police.)
But my remark to the dogs may have been similar to thoughts that passed through the minds of those who called the Concord Police that morning, and may even have been similar to those that passed through the minds of the Concord Police as they raced to investigate.
While everyone’s concerns were justified, the times do have us all a little jumpy. Understandably, as there have been two candidate assassination attempts and an election day terrorist attack was broken up this week in Oklahoma.
But as it turned out on the morning when I was having coffee with the dogs, the hunters in fact heralded that it was just another autumn morning in our countrified-not-so-small-part-of-the-Greater-Boston-Metropolitan-area town: the hunters hunted, the farmers in the field near our house farmed, everyone went to work although sleepy from watching the debate, and life went on.
This is, and will be, an important time for our country – as we navigate any number of concerns, fears, and even angers. But let us remember that the Resurrection still happened, the God of Justice and the Spirit of Hope are yet with us, and with God’s grace our lives will go on. May our lives be and let us pray that all of our lives will be, to the betterment of our town, our country, and our world.
CJ+
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