Local voices chime in on a variety of topics.
Rip a piece of paper from the notebook you vowed to diligently write in each day last year. The last entry is dated February 2, 2021. Write down your list of resolutions, the road map to finding your Best Self.
It’s not that I’m some kind of Scrooge or a holiday curmudgeon. I’m simply too lazy and indifferent to string lights on my house and trees. Besides taking the dog out [4], I seldom leave the house or, more specifically, my Man-Cave in the basement.
This is a tactic that has been employed by both parties over the years, begging the question: what can be done to take power out of the ruling party’s hands and place it back in the voter’s hands? One answer is the Freedom to Vote Act, currently up for debate in the US Senate. Contrary to popular belief, this is a bill that enjoys widespread support among a broad range of voters and lawmakers spanning the political spectrum.
The last time I saw Chelsea Paolini was in the parking lot at WKXL in Concord two summers back. She had just done a performance on Granite State of Mind and was ripping on a bowl of smoke before her ride back to Dover. The video attached to this story is of that performance. And as you can see, Chelsea is on her game, looking strong, tanned and present, belting out an original, as she always did.
A recent poll conducted by OnePoll concluded that 75 percent of Americans admit they need to escape family during the holidays. With the added contention surrounding COVID and political discourse, we reached out to mental health counselor, hypnotherapist and certified integrative medicine practitioner Nicole Sublette, who has been featured on NHPR, WMUR, and the New Hampshire Business Show, to provide sound advice on surviving the holidays.
And for God’s sake, if anyone reading this is struggling to manage right now, know that you’re not alone and please reach out to someone[9]. In this battle with our mental health, we need to have each other’s backs.
Do whatever you can to prevent yourself from getting it, unless you like losing your sense of taste and smell, feeling sore all over, coughing, being chilled and needing to sleep 18 hours a day. If you’re not vaccinated, please get vaccinated. If you’re not wearing a mask indoors in areas where community transmission is high, please start. If you don’t wash your hands regularly, please do so. I don’t want you or anyone else to feel the way I do right now.
Ever since a visit to Frost’s house in Derry, N.H. a few weeks ago, our evening reading sessions have involved a variety of the poet’s poems. Little Bean likes his nature or animal poems the best, though as accessible as Frost can be, there’s still quite a bit of explaining that needs to follow for a 6-year-old to wrap her head around the poet’s use of symbolism and analogy. But it’s fine. Our studies have given me a chance to brush up on my own connections to the poet.
Here’s a unique recipe for your next gathering – pass around a share of mental wellbeing. It’s not exactly the turkey/centerpiece topic of the table (vaccinations perhaps?) There is still room for the expected topics – the newest achievement of the family all-star, or the great unifier of sports. But encourage everyone to try a small serving of something new.
I fully acknowledge your venerable positions as the gatekeepers of the English language—and completely appreciate the stressors associated with being the experts who study the fickle nature of etymology. Yet I need to make a pressing and ardent plea for the addition of a single word in 2022: “shitification.”