Joseph Sabino Mistick: Friendship, the greatest gift

Not much good is expected from the combination of politics and the internet these days. But for our family, the gift of Christmas 2024 — celebrating a friendship across the sea that was borne of politics and the internet — is an exception to that rule.

Some years ago, weary from the media saturation of the Brexit controversy in his own country, Simon Kale of Bath, England, decided to give American politics a look. As he sampled the internet, he stumbled across this column and started what quickly became a regular email discussion of world events.

As it turned out, Simon and I are a pretty good match when it comes to our interest in public affairs. For many years, I have ended each day by listening to the news from the BBC. With less skin in the game here, the BBC has always provided balance for me — even an escape — especially when both MSNBC and Fox News have become too much to bear.

Simon and I became pen pals, a role that I had not heard or thought about since I was boy. At first, our exchanges were all about the political turns in each of our countries — upheaval and calm, progress and setbacks. We were each looking in the other’s direction for a different perspective about our own countries.

In time, we shared family stories and photographs, and we became friends. And so it was that Catherine and I visited Simon and Heather in Bath just two weeks ago.

Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has a lot to teach anyone who is interested in community building and preservation. It was named for the Roman baths that were built there around 60 AD, and you can still see the baths and their ancient foundations. There are two universities, a strong software and tourism economy, and hundreds of retail shops and restaurants.

Bath is what urban planners now call a “15-minute” community — anything a resident needs is no more than a 15-minute walk away. With a population of just over 90,000, Bath still feels like a village.

But our most important lesson came from a visit to Bath Abbey, which was built in 1499 and repaired and partially rebuilt several times over the centuries. Most recently, it took more than a decade after World War II to repair the bomb damage from the deadly 1942 Luftwaffe Bath Blitz.

The former Benedictine monastery is now a parish church, museum and community center. It dominates the heart of the town, all towers and pinnacles and flying buttresses, all carved from honey-colored local stone. It was our last stop.

We ducked into the warm glow of the abbey from the cold rain and early darkness of an English winter, and there it was: a 48-star American flag, old and faded but prominently hanging in the main chapel.

The flag was donated to the abbey by the American Embassy in 1948 “as a token of the friendship between our two peoples in war and in peace.” It is one more reminder that friendship has always been the greatest gift.

So, from the four of us — Simon and Heather and Catherine and me — to all of our friends on both sides of the Atlantic, may you, too, receive the gift of friendship this year.