Chris Mancini

AS MASSACHUSETTS PREPARES to celebrate the Fourth of July enjoying our rivers and beaches, communities along the Merrimack River are instead checking water quality advisories after a devastating accidental sewage leak. Last Friday, heavy rain induced a major sewer line break in Haverhill, sending millions of gallons of wastewater into the river and to the surrounding beaches on the coast where it empties.

Sure, when I first started typing the headline I thought there may indeed be different interpretations there. Which is fine, it’s not like any of them are incorrect. But the point is, as a creative, whether you’re a writer, artist, actor, sculptor, etc., it doesn’t matter. You need help. And this is where it gets interesting. We know we need it, but we don’t want to ask for it. We just want to create and be left alone. Ok, maybe, creating aside, I really just want to be left alone.

Hey Friends It’s been… a year. From local to global, from personal challenges to horrific news to the continued assault on everything from empathy to decency, it’s been one for the history books. Like a lot of you, I’ve felt frustrated and paralyzed, wondering how or even IF I could make things better. Post on social media? The count of people whose minds have been changed by a thoughtful, well-reasoned post still stands proudly at 0.