Italian Umberto Eco said, “We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
Not much of a teaser, but I hope it helps some of you stick around for the next several paragraphs to see why I decided to open with it.
Recently, you probably read about the Seymour Police Department being involved in the pursuit of robbery suspects.
A local store that had been robbed was able to give a vehicle description and direction of travel. The suspects who were apprehended also are implicated in another area robbery that had recently occurred. Good work to our officers for the quick response. Keep up the good work, SPD.
Do you know what your ISO rating is? Maybe before we talk about it, I should explain that the Insurance Services Office updates its ISO rating every few years to help establish a more uniform system of evaluating our public safety measures, such as fire protection, water supply and emergency communications, in our area. This rating is a 1 to 10 rating with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst.
If you live in Seymour proper, your rating should be a 3. If you live outside city limits, you are probably somewhere in the 7 to 9 range. This higher rating will cost you extra on your homeowner’s insurance. This is just one of several perks of deciding to live within city limits.
The 2021 pool season is upon us. Last season’s extra precautions led to some changes in hours. After looking at those changes, we realized some should stick around. For example, the evening hours for open swim will not return for this season.
In an effort to allow some evening swimming, though, the city has found a partner or two to sponsor a few hours free for all. The first of those is brought to you by NTN Driveshaft from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 17. If you are an area business and would like to join us in this partnership, please reach out to parks and recreation for information.
I started the column today with part of a quote from Umberto Eco, “We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
Every week, I try to share some of those scraps from over the years. This week, it is about fathers. Growing up, I strongly remember my father working hard to provide for his family. I don’t ever remember him complaining about it along the way. I am sure this meant he wasn’t always at every event, but I really don’t remember one that sticks out where he wasn’t there.
I remember plenty of little moments where he taught me things without even trying, some of which aren’t as useful now, like checking the gap on your points when your car isn’t running well, things like if you can take it apart you can put it back together.
My favorite of this is when I was very young and decided to take apart my tricycle and he wouldn’t reassemble it for me. I believe it sat in a corner until my nephew came along many years later and wanted to ride it before it was reassembled. Little life lessons like check the brakes before you take off in that new-to-you vehicle purchase.
Those are some of the funnier moments from my childhood, but if you want to get a little deeper, we can hit on things like unconditional love or being a man of your word, more subtle pieces like always stay humble and kind.
Before I end today’s column, I ask you to say a little prayer of peace and healing for my father as he recovers from heart surgery, and young dads, I hope you will take the full quote from Umberto to heart because in my life, they have rung true both as a son and as a father myself.
“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
Matt Nicholson is the mayor of Seymour. Send comments to [email protected].