“….Maybe our leaders, who seem so quick to threaten violence, or shut down the government should spend some time with dairy cows. They are ponderous ships of milk. They are infinite births to attend. They slow time. They are female.”
I basked in a morning New York Times with a water view; computer off, phone useless. In Chilmark, there are no bars. Of any sort.
Kathy and I have always wondered what our favorite vacation place would be like—day to day—when it was not time to swim in the ocean; when not burdened by summer tourist-frenzy. These few October days, on this now oddly-quiet Island, with the annual Food and Wine Festival weekend pending, we wear heavy socks in a small summer cottage, loosely wrapped in blankets—with only a fireplace for heat, but a direct view of Vineyard Sound. Further comforted by cedar-smoke, newly perfumed flannel–it’s probably been awhile since the flue has been cleaned–we worked, and walked.
Planted in an Adirondeck cheir, with the distant clanging of a harbor buoy, I abruptly heard a scream, then a fleeting but furious-sounding struggle. I looked up quickly to see a (huge) hawk fly away and up from ground level to the highest tree tip. Below, a sudden flurry of panicked chatter–as the wild turkey had fought for life just enough to stay grounded—and with it’s noisy gaggle, quickening their already goofy-soulful strut, heads pumping on necks—“we bad, we bad, we out”, towards the woods, bickering all at once, away from the danger of the open field.
The generally peaceful and until-now silent turkey family remained safe and intact for another day. Awed, always, by the hawk yet smiling for the end result, I returned to Robert Olmstead’s preference for baked beans (vs War);
“We are a brawling, righteous, pompous, ignorant people, a land of blowhards to the right, and left. Our warlike impulses and warlike pride are dangerously coupled with our insufferable vanity, our permanent immaturity, our lives of fear and pleasure. The very land we stand on was taken from someone else and made profitable by people who did not own themselves. There’s a mass shooting and we have a phony debate over gun control, but no one on the right or the left talks about suicide by gun. We are violently disposed to others and we are violently disposed to ourselves.”
Such a not-quite-ominous morning–I look forward to tonight’s opening reception of food tastings from MV restaurants and representing farms.
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