2025 Annual Letter

Lawrence S. DiCara, P.C./175 Federal Street, Suite1500

Boston, Massachusetts 02110/Telephone: (617) 749-9403

Larry@larrydicara.com // www.larrydicara.com

 Dear Friends,

 2024 was a busy year for our family!

 Catherine teaches math in Saratoga Springs, New York. When she's not in the classroom, she climbs mountains in the Adirondacks and New Hampshire. Catherine has hiked 47 of New Hampshire's 48 four-thousand-foot mountains. You go girl!

Sophie continues to enjoy her work at Stellar Health, a healthtech startup enabling Value-Based Care. On the weekends she has been playing in a flag football league, and dutifully watches Sox and Pats games, despite the current state of both teams!

Flora remains at Bain & Company, where she is part of the Innovation & Design Group.  She loves living in New York City, but she assures me that she has not become a Yankees fan!

As for me, for years, I was the youngest person in the room. Now, I am often the oldest person in the room.  I am called upon more and more to reflect upon the history of our city and our nation.  I observe changes in our world with respect to real estate and politics and will probably spend more of my time going forward writing and talking about those trends.

Now that I have donated many of my papers to the Massachusetts Historical Society, I expect that makes me a historical figure. It is rather difficult to be a historical figure while simultaneously hustling down the street to City Hall to help out clients, as well as looking towards the future! I continue to enjoy lecturing as I did frequently in the fall both concerning the presidential race, and in a series of lectures to the Beacon Hill Seminar, presenting thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of the Desegregation Order in Boston. As I sometime suggest, my body may be banged up, but my mind is doing just fine!  I continue to write and to think and to give plenty of free advice; that keeps me young.  I also take great pleasure when I serve as a neutral and mediate real estate disputes.  I intend to keep going for as long as I am able.

I could not imagine a better way to celebrate my 75th birthday than to have brunch with my three daughters.  Sophie and Flora invited me to brunch in New York City.  Catherine surprised me and traveled from Upstate New York to join us.  Given all that I have been through in the past few years, I am happy to have achieved this milestone and to be able to celebrate with them. After I had that wonderful brunch with my daughters, I walked down the street to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which I have visited on numerous occasions over many decades and lit three candles. Three is a magic number in our family!

After many efforts, I am now able to swim again. It took me a while to learn how to swim when I was 10. It may have taken me about the same amount of time now that I am in my 70s.  Many thanks to the swim instructors at Pelican Preserve and at the Wareham Y and the lifeguards at Piney Point Beach who kept an eye on me when I went into the ocean. My right arm doesn’t do very much for me, but somehow or other, it has yet to figure that out when it is time to swim!  I enjoyed a great summer, once again splitting my time between Marion and Boston and being productive, even while working remotely.

I swim whenever I can for the same reason that I walk whenever I can. For three years I could not swim; for many months I could not walk and, if I did so, it was with great difficulty. I have a renewed appreciation of some of the very simple things in life I can now do, even as I understand that there are some things, such as playing squash and softball, which I will never do again.

As is usually the case, I read voraciously throughout the year. I spent plenty of time reading Jonathan Haidt’s bestseller The Anxious Generation. He convinced me, rather quickly, that a phone-based childhood is not as healthy as a play-based childhood. Thankfully, smartphones were not common until my daughters were in secondary school. I support the concept of locking phones in a safe place at the beginning of the school day, so that children can focus on learning rather than being influenced by whoever/whatever they see on the Internet.

I would recommend that whoever is advising the incoming administration on immigration should read Streets of Gold by Abramitzky and Boustan.  With facts and figures, it proves that immigration is as good for this country today as it was 100 years ago when Congress passed legislation aiming to keep people like me from entering the country. I have also read Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory which details the interlocking of the religious right and modern-day politics. Among my other favorites was The Soul of Baseball, which dealt with the joyous life of Buck O’Neil, the driving force behind the creation of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City.

Speaking of baseball, I watched lots of baseball this year; the Red Sox fared better than any of us could have predicted at Spring Training, but they still broke our hearts.  Going forward, I will miss Joe Castiglione’s dulcet tones when listening to the Red Sox on radio. He and I exchanged correspondence recently after he was talking on the air as to how he would be cooking swordfish which was on sale at Star Market.  It turns out his grandmother taught him to cook the fish the same way that my grandmother taught me, as we are both of Sicilian stock!

I have written plenty in the past few weeks about our national election. Sadly, many people sat at home and did not participate. Although I did not vote for the winning team, that has been the case more often than not in my adult life. It is important now that the administration govern “with malice towards none” as Abraham Lincoln said in his second inaugural address. We need to move on as a country from the rancorous rhetoric which has dominated our political discourse for so many years.

Finally, I’m happy to announce that my younger sister Ginny – the world’s greatest aunt - was married in October. She has been a widow for many years. Her new husband Ray Lapre has been a widower for many years. They met in prison ministry. They are very happy.

May all of you be as happy as the newlyweds! May God bless them and bless our country as we begin this new year.

Sincerely,

Larry

Lawrence S. DiCara