Contemplating life lessons on a trip back west

BY COURT MERRIGAN

Business took me back west recently for the first time since we moved to Marblehead. We’ve been here nearly six months now. Since almost every experience in Marblehead is a new one, I expected home would feel very familiar. I am here to report that it sure did. And also, it very much didn’t.

The first thing I noticed disembarking at Denver International (the closest reliable airport to home) was the light. Days in Marblehead have a soft gray texture, even when it’s sunny, like the sunlight is just peeking on a place it rarely visits. Out west, on the other hand, sunlight is a glaring full-time resident. There are no clouds and no trees, nothing to diffuse the light.

I have this pair of sunglasses that I’ve used very sparingly since moving to Marblehead. A dozen times, maybe, in six months? Well, I stepped off the plane, immediately started squinting and slapped those things on my face. The other most immediately