Joyful Giving: How a News Veteran Contributes

What former Monitor newsman served at the BA as a Second Reader and drummer? (Not together, mind you!) And for the better part of the last seven years, he’s been using his in-depth knowledge of the news to head up a regular Monitor forum with Independent Living residents. Who is our mystery man?

Long before chat rooms and Twitter and blogs, Independent Living residents at the BA were having interesting interactive monthly “chats” with an insider newsman from The Christian Science Monitor. For years now, Roderick Nordell has been heading up a regular discussion group reminiscent of the old Monitor Forum groups, with news-interested residents.

Rod spent most of his career at the Monitor, starting as a “copyboy” in 1948 after his graduation from Harvard. He went on to become a correspondent for the paper at the Monitor’s New York City bureau, took a year-long Rotary Foundation fellowship at Trinity College Dublin and then came back to Boston and the Monitor where he served as a book review editor, theater reviewer, editorial writer, Home Forum Editor and Feature Editor. For five years in the late 80s and early 90s he was Executive Editor of World Monitor magazine.

He brings both his love of news and his rich background to the monthly discussions where, recently, he and the residents were talking about a variety of Monitor news articles — from traffic signs in Germany to planting trees in San Francisco to speculation about which recent U.S. president’s portrait should grace the fifty dollar bill.

Because the residents bring their love and practice of Christian Science to these get-togethers, often someone in the group will say, after a discussion, “Well, that’s something we should be thinking about in a healing way, isn’t it!”

With healthcare monopolizing the news, everyone has been particularly grateful for the Monitor’s clear handling of that complex subject, which was presented in a way that was both thoughtful and understandable.

So, if you’re looking for a “chat room” that brings you face to face with today’s issues, come on by the BA on The Christian Science Monitor discussion days.