The Majesty of Place There is a line from America the Beautiful that we all know that goes “For purple mountains majesties…”. We all know the song written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1895 (originally called Pikes Peak). She was an English professor at Wellesley College and she wrote the song while taking a cross-country trip to Colorado. When she looked out at the wonders she could see from Pikes Peak, the words flowed into…
Babies, Puppies & Vets There’s an old saying in politics that the things you never screw around with in a negative way are babies, puppies and vets. What’s that about? Those are things everyone…everyone… is sympathetic to, so you simply do not fuck with them, or if you do, you make damn sure no one else knows about it. Who doesn’t like babies? They’re innocent and helpless. Politicians make a point about kissing babies for…
Backsliding In 2020 I spent most of the year during the early stages of COVID working almost every day around the hilltop with Handy Brad, fixing up everything and anything that seemed either amiss or not exactly as I wanted it. Handy Brad and I got quite close over the course of that year. He is a salt of the earth guy who is like many of the working class Americans that inhabit the majority…
Marry Me a Little When Kim and I met in 2005, I had been separated from my second marriage for four years and been through several other relationships, looking for but not yet finding my next marriage partner. I knew myself enough to know that I was someone who wanted and needed to be married. I’ve never understood those who resolve “never again” after a bad marital experience. I don’t know if I’ve just made…
Adjusting to Form There are times when everything in the garden seems perfect and stable. There’s been enough sunshine and enough water and the weather has not been too hot or too cold. Everything is prospering and there is no reason to make changes just for changes sake. There are whole stretches of time when that seems to be the case and nothing is amiss. And then there are other times when everything seems to…
Memorabilia Wall When I was a kid growing up in Maine, my friend next door, Jimmy, had a step-father that had been an acclaimed Boston journalist. I remember wandering into his study one day and marveling at a wall that was covered in photographs of him with famous people, some of who I recognized and some who I probably should have better recognized. He told me that this was his memorabilia wall and that it…
Trick or Treat Once summer ends with Labor Day, it’s a long run to Thanksgiving. In 1937, thanks to extensive lobbying by the Catholic organization, the Knights of Columbus, FDR declared October 12th to be the national holiday of Columbus Day, which supposedly commemorates the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus on October 12th, 1492. In theory, that holiday broke up that three month holiday dry spell nicely, but it never really took hold as…
Stupid Dreams I am watching a very inspirational movie called A Million Miles Away that was just released. It is a 2023 movie about Jose Hernandez (born 1962 and played by Michael Pena), the migrant farm worker who grew up in the Imperial Valley of California into a hard-working migrant farm family and went on to become an engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Labs, working on laser technology, all the while pursuing his dream to…
Elite Immersion I admit freely to being a devotee of MSNBC. I understand that it subjects me to some derision, certainly from my conservative friends, but also from some moderate friends and even some more liberal acquaintances that consider it invasive to their peace and harmony to submit to the daily media barrage of any sort. And if you spend an entire day listening (as I do via Sirius radio at times like during a…
Sevastopol I just left the Mendocino Peninsula which is just north of the Russian river. When you visit this part of Northern California, you learn that Russia once held a stronghold in this part of the state. There was a Russian colony in this part of California from 1812 to 1841. It seems the Russians thought Northern California was the land of plenty when it came to the bountiful forests and the abundance of sea…