Pea-Soup

13 June 2021 [Inadvertently I posted this last week on my Malawi blog site in error.]

The Island, and the Bay, are snugly wrapped in a gray fog-blanket. I love days like this—damp, cool, and quiet with only the occasional thump of a lobsterman’s diesel as he is pulling traps or the caw of a crow. My Pullman-car-size Jotul warms the house quickly. Endless cups of tea. Perfect for a writing project or, if others are around, to chat, gossip, and argue, our equivalent of cawing. I put my kayak in the barn last night in hopes I could apply a coat or two of bottom paint on it but the air is so moist I’ll hold off. The garden, by all appearances, loves this weather.

While I am missing durian, mango, and mangosteen season, I’m gorging on cherries and early blueberries (from California). Anadine, my 2^nd or 3^rd cousin, once or twice removed, is the only other soul overnight on the island. Carpenters are putting a new roof on one of the cottages, arriving at 8AM and leaving at 2:30PM. I thought they might not come in the fog today, but their ride, Karl, has been delivering the mail to the islands of Penobscot Bay for years and sniffs his way unerringly through the fog.

I have 8 small kale seedlings which I’ll put in after lunch. If Ariane’s garden is representative, I’ll be eating kale in a week and bathing in it by two. I bought lumber to build a 6’ dropleaf table, which will go together quickly, I imagine. I’ve decided to paint the top the same turquoise blue I’m putting on the bottom of the kayak; the legs I’ll stain and varnish, like the topsides of the kayak. It isn’t really a theme I’m aiming at; I just want a bright color for the table, not simply oiled wood, of which there is plenty here. The lumber was unbelievably expensive—for pine, mind you. I could have bought a finished table in an antique shop for less, but mine will look, and function, better.

I discussed cases via Skype and WhatsApp yesterday and today with former students in Myanmar. “I don’t know what I’m doing!” but she really did and was doing a good job. The other wrote me an email, “I need your help to manage these two cases.”, giving me thorough case descriptions with good management plans. She was doing fine, also. I think it is just the anxiety of doing something new and wanting to do it well. I’m happy to be regularly on their sidelines as they both seem to be getting lots of referrals. Both are smart and conscientious and want to learn. And it is great for me, lending some continuity to my substantial investment there.  

Good grief! Just like that, the sun is appearing and the fog is receding. I was going to photograph the meadow and harbor in the fog to use with this post; no longer. I cannot say I am unhappy. Perhaps it will dry enough I can put a coat on the boat.

I was in a poetry workshop at Stanford for a couple of years and simultaneously met with a separate group of poets to discuss our current work. I haven’t written a poem in 3 years and feel no need to. “Coat on the boat” is as close as I’ll get. Better I learn to make a good bagel and a good croissant; both seem challenging, since most examples are mediocre. All I need is one very good one of each to discount all the so-so attempts preceding that. It’s like heat or cold, how we are able to adapt to imperfect circumstances. Or a difficult relationship. Or all manner of discomfort.

A pair of osprey have a nest 100 feet from the shore near our dock. I haven’t looked carefully with  binoculars to see if chicks have hatched. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?  Thankfully, it seems to me, we have other important tasks to address after childbearing is done. I love to watch osprey fish, hovering in one spot while they lock onto their prey. Then it’s a vertical dive, wings folded, and they emerge, often with a mackerel, held like a bomb underneath an WWII prop plane. When an eagle, our national symbol of courage and fidelity, spots them, the larger bird steals the fish. A good example of a Proud American!

Now we learn that DT was using the Dept. of Justice to investigate “leaks”, not of highly classified information but of politically-sensitive material. Investigating Congressmen, including Adam Schiff, and their families. Also, pressuring the Attorney General to corrupt the election with phony fraud charges, as he continues to do. It is a customary practice in dictatorships, using the “non-partisan” institutions of government to stay in office illegally. Before the election, he publicly stated “The only way I won’t win is if there is fraud.”, a wishful logical twist or preparing us for his lies to come? He is as dangerous as his niece has suggested, and it is not surprising that those he admires are all tyrants and above the law: Putin, Bolsonaro, Duterte, Kim Jung-Un, and the like.

What I cannot fathom is why or how people are so blind to his corrupt ways. Before the election he bragged that he made money during his bankruptcies: now we know he stiffed his contractors and left his investors holding the bag.  The Sleaze-O-Meter throbs when he passes nearby. I fail to see how he appeals to anyone.  He is also, for the macho men among us, a physical coward, despite sending others into the breach. I must stop here. John Adams and his son—all our Founding Fathers—would have thrown up their hands and stared in disbelief!