A JOURNEY TO BOSTON

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mark 1:3)

“A Journey to Boston” is the title of a novel from the early 1960s. I also think I entitled a previous post on my blog, “A Journey to Boston”. IF I did, sorry for the redundancy, but I thought it was an appropriate title. (I did a superficial search and did not find “A Journey to Boston” in the blog archives but somebody may prove me wrong!)

This afternoon, I went on a short journey to Boston. My daughter Amy and her friend Nicole from Springfield, Missouri are visiting for a few days. After I got out of work at the answering service in the early afternoon, I joined them for a trip to Boston by public transportation. This is Nicole’s first trip to New England, although she went to New York City a year or so ago. (As native New Englanders know, New York City is NOT New England. Well, Fairfield County, Connecticut sort of IS, but NYC itself...NO!)

We drove to Newton’s Woodland Station just off Route 16 and took the Riverside Green line trolley into the city. You never know WHO is going to be on the T !!
About halfway to Boston, a heavy set African American guy wearing a huge set of headphones and carrying a CD player got one. He stood the whole way, SMILING and literally “moovin’ and groovin’” to the music he was hearing. At one point, he was making dramatic motions as if he was conducting the Boston Pops orchestra. I came within a sixteenth of an inch of laughing my head off. Thank God, I controlled my laughter. When some girls got were getting off at one stop they kind of danced with him for a few seconds, and he yelled, “Disco, baby, DISCO!!” Yes, you never know WHO will be riding on a trolley car with you!

We got off at Park Street station. My kids make fun of my interest in history and civics, but I make it a point to point out Park Street Church and speak of its history in the Nineteenth Century Abolitionist movement. I also pointed out Fox 25’s Boston studio, the State House, and even the headquarters of the Unitarian-Universalist Church. We enjoyed walking through Boston common. I did not know this is “U.S. Marines week” in the City of Boston! Marines and military equipment were EVERYWHERE...especially at Boston Common and Copley Square. That was pretty cool! I love Boston Public Garden. We did not go on a swan boat ride, although I could have easily been talked into one! We did walk through the Public Garden and just DRINK in the beauty. I have given express orders that when I die I don’t want to be cremated, BUT if I ever change my mind, I think I’d love to have my ashes scattered around Boston Public Garden. I love the place THAT much.

What’s Boston without Dunkin’ Donuts?! (You may know my hometown of Canton, MA is also where Dunkin’ Donuts’ world headquarters is located and the first D.D. was in Quincy, MA.) We stopped at a D.D. I had not eaten lunch, so I had a bagel sandwich. I really wanted an ice coffee, but because of the contaminated water in Boston this week, NO ice coffee. However, since the Coolotta mix is premixed from a factory, we DID order Coolottas.

We took a walk down Boylston Street toward Copley Square. One of Amy’s favorite spots there is the plaza outside Trinity Church. There were loads of Marines there. Nicole enjoyed the “eye candy”...HER term!

As we walked further down Boylston, the skies turned BLACK. It looked like we were about to have a Missouri tornado. I half kidded the young ladies about bringing their weather with them from the midwest! Just as it was starting to rain, we went into Prudential Center mall and enjoyed walking around there and Copley Place mall. The weather cleared up and we made our way to Copley station and got on a Riverside green line trolley heading back toward Newton and Woodland station. After going through six (or so) stops, the motorman stopped the trolley and announced TREES WERE DOWN on the tracks and we’d have to get off! I guess that brief squall WAS pretty bad in parts of Brookline and Newton! Everybody made their way out of the trolley and we were directed “upstairs” to the street where a bus was waiting for us. It was VERY crowded. I suggested we wait for another one. In a few minutes, two more of these emergency busses marked “OUT OF SERVICE” pulled up and a stressed middle-aged African-American T driver motioned and commanded the crowd to get on the busses. I felt bad for our bus driver. He was a nice guy. People were asking him questions such as, “Where are we going?” “Are we making ALL the stops?” “How FAR are we going?”

This poor guy had been home relaxing and had been pressed into service due to the emergency. This was NOT his regular route at all. He was no more familiar with it than I was. “I’m just following the bus in front of us,” he kept saying, “That’s all I can tell you!”

MOST people took things in stride, but a few had an “attitude”. I was sitting near the driver and I kind of humorously broke the ice, saying, “It’s like that old hymn, ‘WHERE HE LEADS ME I WILL FOLLOW’” The guy chuckled, and AGREED! The bus was “wicked hot” and uncomfortable as we New Englanders would say, but I tried to just enjoy the 30 minute ride. Actually, Nicole got to see some of the ritzy streets of Newton so that was nice. Eventually, we ended up at Newton Highlands station where we got back on the Green line and rode it a few stops to Woodland. Nicole noted that a number of people riding the busses in the opposite direction were all dressed up in Red Sox gear...obviously going in to Fenway Park. That couldn’t have been an easy trip for them.

After the 30 minute drive from Woodland station to Framingham it felt good to be home! In one sense, that was what I call a “short,cameo trip” to Boston, but it was also an ADVENTURE... from the cool, singing Black guy, to the Marines, to the storm, the city sites, and the “different” ride back on the T.

I’m a guy who DOESN’T tend to be flexible. I tend to be very rigid, and that’s gotten me into some trouble in life. TODAY I was flexible and just took things in stride and had fun. You may wonder what the Scripture verse I opened with has to do with this posting Well, John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord and I think today the LORD prepared the way for us. What I told that bus driver... “where He leads me I will follow”...well, that’s really TRUE!

So, we’ve all gotta learn to be less rigid and more flexible. I will still have my “bad” days in this area...I know, but like all of us, I’m “under construction” and I want God to help me grow in this and other areas.