I’ve been debating about putting my last name and hometown on my blog. Identity theft is such an issue. Anyway, still won’t mention it in the blog, but it’s sorta obvious from the name of the newspaper…
But my resolve evaporated with this interesting article by Marjorie Censer in one of the local papers on Joe’s efforts to negotiate with the University over its contribution to Borough tax revenues (the University is a non-profit, so does not need to pay taxes, even though it consumes a massive amount of Borough resources).
I just can’t resist posting the article, because of this one line that Marjorie wrote: "Council members said they heard from [Joe] only sporadically, and some felt like they didn’t know what was going on."
One council member, Roger Martindell, went so far as to say that Joe’s negotiations were "undefined, undisclosed and not institutionalized in
any way."
My mom was so pleased that others felt Joe was secretive!
Of course, it wasn’t that Joe was secretive, as mom admitted after her initial delight and amusement had faded. It was just that Joe didn’t share if he didn’t feel a need to. He didn’t deliberately keep council in the dark. It just didn’t occur to him to share.
Like the time he asked a fellow Jesuit at Aquinas House in P——-n for a ride to the bus station one summer in the late 1960s. His colleague, who shared the responsibility with Joe for giving Mass that summer, asked where Joe was going.
‘To the airport,’ Joe said.
‘Oh, where are you flying?’
‘Germany,’ Joe replied.
‘For how long?’ asked his increasingly alarmed fellow Jesuit.
‘All summer.’
It’s not like Joe was hiding anything. I mean, he asked the fellow for a ride, and answered all his questions. It just didn’t occur to him to tell him sooner.