Virginia Buckingham

Congratulations to all the high school seniors who have just committed to the college they will attend this fall. Maybe it was your first choice, maybe it was your safety, or somewhere in between. Whichever it was, this is the opportunity to buy mom that coffee mug she so desires for Mother's Day and dad his higher-education-branded belt come his day in June. Oh, and set your path for a lifetime. Or, end up on a path you can hardly conceive of now. It's that…

Very few things make my blood boil these days, I'm trying to incorporate a zen-like outlook in life as much as possible. But any intentional effort to increase political antagonism and paranoia, like a movie released last Friday, takes me from zen to 10 on the inner-rage meter, with 10 being the highest. Leave it to Hollywood to try to capitalize on the country's polarized zeitgeist. Don't take your history-interested teenager to the movies this weekend to learn about the events leading to the attack…

This is the story of an 8-year-old boy and a 62-year-old man. One very successful and well-known. One, well, 8. Picture the scene: A crisp, sunny day on the South Lawn of the White House. Rows of chairs set up theater style for a show like no other. The 2007 World Champion Red Sox team arrayed on a riser behind a podium with the presidential seal. Big Papi commanding attention like he’s at bat. The president at the microphone. A little boy, just over 4…

Every year around this time I take a walk to Flint Street on the Neck. There's a spot there by an old stone wall where purple crocuses come up, and I look for my first annual sign of spring. None was in sight when I checked in February, but by last week they had emerged. My Merlin bird identification app indicated a yellow goldfinch was in or near my yard on a recent morning. They don't all migrate, but I haven't seen any since the…

I found it! The key to uniting our fractured country! Can you guess what it is? If you correctly answered “trivia nights”, then you must be one of the millions of people all over the country who enjoy the challenge of answering questions about obscure or unimportant things. In fact, pull in to any burg in any state, whether it votes blue or red, and you surely can find a pub or a hall devoted to this brain-tickling entertainment on any given evening. More on…

I’m on the lookout for small miracles these days. Or maybe they are on the lookout for me.  Whichever it is, I’m grateful to keep coming across them. A small miracle discovered on a recent beach walk CURRENT PHOTO / VIRGINIA BUCKINGHAM For instance, did you know that if you cut branches of a forsythia bush in winter, and put them in a vase of water, they bloom? I didn’t either until last year when a friend showed up at my house with a handful…

Here’s a radical idea to put into practice this Valentine’s Day: Love your neighbor. Last week, I was newly reminded how far we have strayed from this basic concept, 180 degrees to be exact. Today, “disdain your neighbor” is not only the more common, but actually the preferred, approach to living in a community, a state, this country. First, I don’t mean love your actual neighbor, hopefully you already do, or at least like them a lot. I mean neighbor in the larger collective sense.…

A short but long month, February. Spring is teasingly close in days — 40 as of this publication. But we who are wise to her flirtations know the countdown to spring’s arrival is meant only to assuage our despair with a flicker of hope, like a squirrel climbing on a birdfeeder and shaking free a few kernels of corn. Yes, February has found me reaching for the tortured metaphor along with an afternoon hot cup of tea. I’ve despaired less this winter; remedies of fires,…