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marbleheadcurrent.org
A6 Wednesday, May 24, 2023 Marblehead Current
Opinion EDITORIAL
Are you aware? May is Mental Health Awareness Month in recognition that caring for one’s mental health is just as important as caring for one’s physical health, which had not always been the case. Most, if not all, of our readers know someone who has needed to address mental health issues — perhaps yourself, a family member, a friend, a business acquaintance or someone in your neighborhood. This leads us to wonder how many of you are aware of the existence of the Marblehead Counseling Center. Located next to Hobbs Playground at 66 Clifton Ave., MCC has been providing a wide range of mental health services to residents of all ages from Marblehead and surrounding communities since its inception in 1969 when a group of parents, concerned about rising drug use in town, joined forces to address the issue. Over the years, MCC has grown and expanded its scope of mental health and social services such that approximately 7,000 therapy sessions now occur each year, addressing such conditions as severe anxiety, depression, social isolation, substance abuse, marital and family issues, and major mental health diagnoses. Ten therapists, three interns and a part-time psychiatrist comprise its staff, and a group of volunteer citizens serve on its board of directors, advancing the agency’s mission “to improve the quality of life for individuals and families by providing a high-quality, local source of mental health and family support.” MCC staff and volunteers work closely with many town departments and community groups, including but not limited to police, fire, public health, schools, housing, local physicians, the Female Humane Society, the Marblehead Mental Health Task Force, Making Ends Meet and the Marblehead Ministerial Association. MCC derives its funding from health insurance plans, clients’ co-payments, private donations and annual contributions from the Board of Health. In return for the receipt of town funds, MCC provides free mental health services to individuals who live or work in Marblehead and who are unable to pay for such services. Social services, another vital component of MCC’s role in the community, are also provided under the MCC contract with the Board of Health. As we have all endured the COVID pandemic, staff at MCC have addressed its mental health repercussions daily. Suicide rates and drug overdoses have increased. Our children have suffered from feelings of isolation associated with the earlier loss of in-person teaching and interaction with their classmates. Generalized anxiety and feelings of depression have also been exacerbated. Additionally, social service needs increased during the pandemic. The removal of the eviction moratorium and the impending removal of certain Medicaid benefits have placed further stress on some of our most vulnerable citizens. MCC is working with many of them to find housing or affordable medical care to meet their needs. We applaud the work of MCC’s dedicated staff and volunteers. We are fortunate to have such a valuable mental health and social service resource in our town. And let’s strive to make mental health awareness something to keep in mind every day of the year.
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EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY
Fill up summer to slow it down BY VIRGINIA BUCKINGHAM
I’m thinking what you’re thinking. This is the best time of the year to live in Marblehead and New England. This season is our revenge. Those who moved to Florida or Arizona and posted palm tree pictures in my Facebook feed all winter? I’ll see your post with mine of a perfect sunset over the harbor, and raise you an overflowing lobster roll. Every year at about this time, my husband and I start talking about all the plans we want to make for the summer. Who do we want to invite over for a barbeque? How many cooking fires can we fit in at Goldthwait Reservation? What shows might we try to see? We have to get to Woodman’s. And spend a day at Wingaersheek Beach. A few years ago, we walked to Little Harbor Lobster Company and sat on a bench and ate cold shrimp and lobster. Let’s do that again, we plan. And take the Salem Ferry into town to have lunch in the North End. Catch a couple Red Sox games. Inevitably, the Fourth of July arrives about two minutes after Memorial Day. Then Labor Day comes and we wonder where the summer went, and register all the May-dreamt plans that didn’t come together. We say we’ll definitely do them next year. Yes, September and October are often glorious but, no matter our age, the coming of Labor Day marks the end of sitting on the beach and the beginning of organizing, so to speak, our life’s shiny new notebooks and sharpened pencils. This year, I want it to be different. I want summer to unwind slower, like it did when I was a kid. Why did summer feel like it lasted forever back then? Each day unfolded pretty much like the one before. I didn’t have any definite plans. My days went something like this: Eat breakfast, get on my bike with the banana seat, ride to my best friend’s house, walk our dogs, watch my brothers and the neighborhood boys play home run derby or basketball and occasionally join them, go for a ride with my dad to get penny candy or with my mom to get fresh corn from a farm stand. Sit on the front stairs at night. Capture fireflies. Feel sad I captured them and let them go. Every day was some variation of this. And summer went by so slowly.
I logically concluded that formless repetitive days were the solution to our summertime time warp. I was about to cancel our May discussion and all summer plans. Long languid days on the backyard deck were all I was going to put on the calendar. Turns out, I’ve got it all wrong. First of all, some research shows children perceive time differently than adults, at least very young children, so the comparison to childhood summers doesn’t hold up. It feels like summer passed more slowly when we were children, because we perceived everything passing more slowly. Our “working memory, attention and executive function” were still developing and our “neural transmission is in effect physically slower compared to adults. This in turn affects how they perceive the passage of time,” according to neuroscientist Patricia Costello, PhD, in an NBC news report on the subject. What, then, is a better strategy to slow down summer as an adult? “Modern research supports the 1885 advice of philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau. He said to lengthen time, ‘Fill it, if you have the chance, with a thousand new things.’” That’s the advice Claudia Hammond, a radio presenter and psychologist, gave in a fascinating BBC “All in the mind” episode. “When you do lots of different things, time flies. But we perceive time in two different ways: we judge how fast it’s going right now and we also look back, asking ourselves how long it felt. We partly make that judgment by considering how many new memories we made, so the more different things you pack into one weekend, the longer that weekend will feel when it comes to Monday morning,” she said, adding “A weekend spent at home lazing and reading the papers will feel relaxing at the time, but gives rise to so few new memories that the weekend will not stand out from any other, making time appear to have gone faster.” A slower summer is one where we actually do all the things we planned in May. It’s a summer filled with a thousand new things. I’m thinking what you’re thinking — that sounds exhausting! But I’ll try it. I can nap after Labor Day once I organize my pencils. Virginia Buckingham is the president of the Marblehead Current’s board of directors. Her column appears weekly.
MY MARBLEHEAD FIRST TIME
The magic of a baseball field is universal BY COURT MERRIGAN When I told my son, Waylon, that we were moving to Massachusetts, his very first reaction was, “Oh, man. Do they even have baseball out there?” “Son,” I said, “I’m pretty sure they’ve heard of baseball in Boston.” Now, I don’t want to say that the first thing I Googled about Marblehead was “baseball league.” But I’m pretty sure Waylon did. The boy loves to play baseball the way only a 12-yearold boy can, an enthusiasm almost dire in its intensity. At his oft-repeated request, back in Wyoming he and I used to spend hours in the batting cage. You know the drill if you know the game: toss a bucket, pick balls. Toss a bucket, pick balls. Repeat until dinner. In fact, we worked at it so much that I worried we’d worked the fun clean out of the game. After all, when God reached down from heaven and tapped Abner Doubleday on the epaulet, He intended for every kid who ever
CURRENT PHOTO / COURT MERRIGAN
picked up a summertime bat to have fun swinging it, not to turn it into a job. Those long sessions started to seem like one. But then the lad started slapping the ball around the park, and it all paid off. Work hard first, and the fun follows. As for myself, I couldn’t get enough baseball. I joined in with a few others back in Torrington, Wyoming, who decided to found a travel ball club, because the only thing better than baseball is more baseball. In keeping with the distances back home, travel ball in Wyoming means travel ball. We hit the road for days at a time, crisscrossing
Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado for games, even making the long haul down to Phoenix for a tournament. Then came Little League, All-Stars, Districts... whew. By the time I looked up, summer was over, and by the time I blinked again, we were moving to Marblehead. Since we’ve moved here, people have been talking about this ballpark called Gatchell’s. The kids love it down there, they told me. They hang out there the whole season long, and when they’re not playing, they watch their friends play. Sure, it gets a little chilly down MERRIGAN, P. A7