To the editor:
This was just another year that my sons, Matt, Vaughn and I would go on our fifth year of pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass. This has become a small journey that we have looked forward to because of the spiritual value of being there on Divine Mercy Sunday, but also for the time we can have together experiencing this as father and sons.
This year Matt came up to Caribou to stay with us on Holy Week and then we were going to travel to Methuen, Mass., to join up with Vaughn the following week to travel to Stockbridge the following Saturday.
Whenever Matt and I travel together, he is always the one who does all the driving. I have come to fully trust him behind the wheel. He has proven himself many times in cities such as Boston and many of the busy interstates of Massachusetts. It is probably me that worries him on some of our trips.
On one of our camping trips, I must have overdone it with exercise and developed heat prostration, and not knowing at the time what I was experiencing we ended up in the emergency room at Millinocket to figure out it wasn’t something to do with my heart. Many times I try to make myself believe I am still 30 years old, like the time I just couldn’t make it up to the top of Big Moose Mountain. I told Matt I thought I could get to the summit, but I didn’t have enough to get myself down. Naturally, we scrubbed that idea.
This year on the night before we were to leave, I overheard Matt’s mom whispering something to him, and all I caught was “your father.” I wasn’t going to inquire on this unless Matt might offer to share this with me. He chose to casually share this with me that evening: “Dad, Mom wants me to oversee you this trip to make sure you take your pills; she says you forget many times to take them.”
I assured Matt that she was being over cautious, that I really didn’t forget that often. I didn’t want Matt to stress himself out on this trip thinking he had to babysit his father. I wanted to erase all the times I may have seemed like a liability on our trips and I was determined to oversee and diligently regulate myself on my medications.
The following morning I was very determined to be one step up on my medications so when Matt should ask me on it, I could assuredly respond, “Yup, I have got that all taken care of. I put them down the first thing this morning.” After I came through the first morning with flying colors, I just felt Matt knew his Dad was still well connected.
We headed out early Saturday morning and arrived at Vaughn’s in the early afternoon. That following morning as we were heading to Stockbridge, the question came again: “Dad, did you take your pills?” And I was Johnnie on the spot again; I was even starting to impress myself.
We arrived at our motel room for that evening in Lenox, Mass., about a 20-minute drive from the Shrine in Stockbridge. We decided that evening to go to a local grocery store and get ourselves all kinds of food and snacks for our evening in the motel. Big playoff NBA games were scheduled, so it seemed that basketball was in that night and fasting seemed to be out. The room was equipped with a fridge and microwave, which added to the feeling of the boys’ night out.
The following morning we were up at 8 for we wanted to partake of the continental breakfast that was advertised. We sent Matt to check it out. Matt returned and said that one muffin remained and that was it. So we scrapped that idea for maybe catching breakfast at Micky D’s in Lee, Mass., heading toward Stockbridge so we would arrive early for a parking spot ahead of the crowd.
We arrived at McDonald’s and we felt were ahead of the game by getting a quick breakfast and heading toward our goal all in the same move. I sat down with my sons and had just bitten into my bacon, egg and cheese biscuit when Matthew popped the question again: “Dad, did you take your pills?”
I immediately froze. Matt stared at me, I stared back, and somehow I got the very sheepish reply of “no” to find its way through my breakfast biscuit. He stared some more, not saying anything, and I looked into his eyes and I could read them just like a neon light flashing at midnight. Mom was right, Mom was right.
I have always known Matt as being a very compassionate man, gentle and forgiving and besides, that was why we came on this pilgrimage, to experience mercy. He responded, “OK, no problem, we’ll just go out to the car and you can take them.”
Oh, boy, this is when my head is really coming alive and I am now remembering everything. I can remember Matt telling of some great philosopher who once said that God had put limits on man’s intelligence but not on his stupidity. I think I was about to confirm this for him.
Have you ever had a situation like this that more bad news is coming and you believe that telling how it happened will soften what actually did happen? I started to explain how I got up in the morning, and because I had put the clear plastic pill container on the white-colored microwave, that it just seemed to blend in and disappear. Matt had got this look on his face that said he was starting to see what happened. There was no response beyond this. Vaughn had now come into this with the same look on his face also.
I started with profusely apologizing for what happened, that it was my fault we had to drive 20 minutes back to the motel to get the pills I had forgotten. Oh, I felt bad. I tried a bit of exaggerated humor to ease the tension. I pleaded with them not to tell their mother about this, “or you know I’ll get a beating.” I looked into both their eyes and I think I could read something like: Just today, for now, we think we would kind of like to watch that. I know this couldn’t be, it was more a response to how I was feeling.
We headed back to the motel and I was feeling like the burden I didn’t want to be. If they had just reprimanded me a little; but no, they didn’t say anything and they seemed to be quite content in where we were today. That got me to think that they were really exhibiting the mercy that they came to experience, that this mercy that God has told us we are all eligible for is present to all of us, and today I was grateful to receive it and proud that it came from two of my sons.
Peter Pinette
Woodland
