{"id":805,"date":"2006-12-25T09:24:35","date_gmt":"2006-12-25T16:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=805"},"modified":"2006-12-25T09:26:44","modified_gmt":"2006-12-25T16:26:44","slug":"christmas-story-a-canticle-for-kathleen-sullivan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/805\/christmas-story-a-canticle-for-kathleen-sullivan\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas story: A canticle for Kathleen Sullivan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A canticle for Kathleen Sullivan<\/b><\/p>\n

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story<\/i><\/p>\n

I got to the hospital after visiting hours, but the nurse led me to the room anyway. “There hasn’t been anyone,” she confided.<\/p>\n

I pursed my lips in grim acknowledgement. “That’s why I’m here.”<\/p>\n

Inside the room the patient looked like purple death. It was a critical-care room, bright and white and cheerfully clinical. The bed was surrounded by apparatus, with lines and leads and probes and IV tubes running to him. The only unbruised part of him that I could see were his eyes, and his eyes were more deeply wounded than anything.<\/p>\n

I’ll tell you his story, but I won’t tell you his name. His name is yours. His name is mine. His name is legion…<\/p>\n

I pulled up a chair and got as close to the bed as I could. I wanted to see his eyes. I wanted him to see mine. His jaw was wired and he was breathing though a plastic tube mounted in his throat, which makes for a fairly one-sided conversation.<\/p>\n

“I just came from the funeral,” I said. “Biggest one I’ve ever seen. The procession must have been two miles long. Kathleen Sullivan, mother of six, grandmother of two, with two more on the way, loving wife of Brian Sullivan — in the newspaper it’s just something that’s there, like the basketball scores or the stock tables. People die every day. People are born every day. It doesn’t seem to matter very much.”<\/p>\n

I shrugged. “I think it does. I’ll tell you a story: About six months ago there was a woman driving down Endicott Avenue. Driving very safely, five miles an hour below the speed limit, doing everything just exactly right. There were some schoolboys riding their bikes on the sidewalk beside her, and, all at once, one of the boys decided to dart out into the street, right in front of her car. She stood on the brake pedal, but it was already too late. Screech, crunch, tragedy. The boy was killed instantly.<\/p>\n

“She saw it, of course. His little schoolfriends saw it. Half a block away was the crossing Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A canticle for Kathleen Sullivan A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story I got to the hospital after visiting hours, but the nurse led me to the room anyway. “There hasn’t been anyone,” she confided. I pursed my lips in grim acknowledgement. “That’s why I’m here.” Inside the room the patient looked like purple death. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2419,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2419\/a-canticle-for-kathleen-sullivan\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":0},"title":"A canticle for Kathleen Sullivan","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie story I got to the hospital after visiting hours, but the nurse led me to the room anyway. \"There hasn't been anyone,\" she confided. I pursed my lips in grim acknowledgment. \"That's why I'm here.\" Inside the room the patient looked like purple death. It was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17621,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17621\/overnight-news-fail-to-the-thief-the-evanescent-illegitimacy-of-china-joe-biden-the-potemkin-pedophile-elect\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":1},"title":"Overnight News: Fail to the thief: The evanescent illegitimacy of China Joe Biden, the Potemkin Pedophile-Elect.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Three things that need to happen soon: The United States cannot fall under Chinese control. And yet the United States cannot fall into Civil War. While China is rescued by Taiwan \u2013 in due course \u2013 also without intramural warfare. Does Joe Biden seem like he's up for any of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15452,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15452\/ramblin-gamblin-willie-goes-straight-to-jail-meanwhile-he-has-a-new-book-of-short-stories-out-for-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":2},"title":"Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie goes straight — to jail. Meanwhile, he has a new book of short stories out for Christmas.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"William F.X. O'Connell -- that's Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie to you -- has been making a game effort to go straight over the past few years. This paid off in abundance this morning, when he finally managed to get himself arrested. Meanwhile, just yesterday Willie published a collection of his outrageously\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/801\/christmas-story-courtney-at-the-speed-of-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":3},"title":"Courtney at the speed of life","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie story \"Lord-a-mercy!\" I said in my thickest southern drawl. \"Somebody tell god to take the rest of the week off. He has made perfection, and there ain't no topping that!\" The beautiful blonde woman scowled and blushed at the same time. It made her look seventeen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14102,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14102\/time-and-a-vector-these-are-the-back-stories-of-our-lives\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":4},"title":"Time and a vector — these are the back-stories of our lives…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an extract from the novella I wrote at Christmas: \u00a0Christmas -- the back-story. \"The name of the game is back-story.\" I said that. I was sitting with Tigan and Chance at the food court at the Paradise Valley Mall. \"The objective is to pick out people in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8220,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8220\/the-heart-of-unchained\/","url_meta":{"origin":805,"position":5},"title":"The Heart of Unchained","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"May 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days later and my head's still not right.\u00a0 Have you ever returned home from a few days away and felt like you needed another vacation in order to recover from your vacation?\u00a0 You might say the Unchained Conference was like that... but you'd be off by a factor of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bloodhound SEO"","block_context":{"text":"Bloodhound SEO","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/bloodhound-seo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}