Thankful

[Above photo: Sunset at the Fish River Canyon, Namibia]

28 November 2021

Martha’s Vineyard is a lovely island. Again, stolen from the Native Americans. Now it is, like Manhattan, very pricey real estate. The Obamas just bought a multi-million dollar place on a large piece of waterfront land. I looked at Zillow for fun—-for $760,000 I could get a 1 bedroom cottage (800sqft) on a 2200sqft patch of land.

I spent Thanksgiving and surrounding days with my friends, Jeff and Bonnie, at their lovely, spacious home in Chilmark. They got it a few years ago at a reasonable price, along with some acreage. Much of the latter is in a conservation easement, which means a wild buffer for them with no taxes. They often have, and can accommodate, numbers of their children, partners/spouses, and grandchildren, loving the noise and energy and associated senses of history and accomplishment. This time it was just we three.

We ate well—smoked turkey with dressing, homemade pear/cranberry compote, the Ottolengi squash/onion bake with tahini and za atar, matzoh ball soup, and bagels I brought from Portland’s Rose Food—-took easy walks, and talked like crazy. I was able to learn more about each of their beginnings. Jeff and I share college (he was there 2 years before me), medical school (contemporaries), memories, and career interests. Plus, the challenges of aging. It was relaxed and easy and fun; I slept until 8AM which is unheard of for me.

The drive down and back was easy, excepting the tangle of bridges and tunnels through Boston, and I, of course, love the ferry ride. Vineyard Haven Harbor has, always, a lovely assortment of sailboats—large, capable cruisers, numerous small schooners of both gaff and Marconi persuasion, and even a sweet old catboat—over which I drool.

MV has an interesting future, I think. As the rents and prices blast skyward, only the wealthy can afford to live there. Often this means older people in retirement, who may need some assistance with shopping, cleaning, yardwork, and house maintenance. But the service people will not be able to afford to live on island and may not want to commute an hour to and from work each day.  It feels a little like Japan here now, with an aging population and younger people not wanting to do the jobs they traditionally would have done.  Perhaps it will eventually go back to the Wampanoags.

The publication for which Erica is the Managing Editor, Inside Climate News, has a couple of remarkable stories currently. One is about the environmental devastation of the Canadian tar sands petroleum extraction. The other is about the largest nickel smelter in the world, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia. It was built and staffed by Stalin’s gulag and has been spewing out toxins for 80 years, polluting the rivers, poisoning the fish and animals, and killing the trees in an immense surrounding area.  Not to mention the striking increase in various cancers and other serious illnesses in humans living nearby. That plant alone emits more sulfur dioxide annually than the entire United States. And the lies and coverups about the ruination of a pristine and beautiful part of the world are infuriating. Inside Climate News is a great investigative organ, obviously timely. <insideclimatenews.org> Worth your support.

Disinformation in any form is so upsetting. Don Jr., our most visible used car salesman, has been ranting on Fox News about how the US media is not reporting on the riots in Europe over vaccine mandates. What riots are those, exactly? And you are suggesting Americans should riot in protest to our own vaccine mandates, rather than acting “like sheep” for not doing the same? Large groups of unmasked people shouting in protest seems like a great way to spread an airborne virus. Finally, Alex Jones’ chickens may be returning to their roost. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a parent whose child was shot and killed at Sandy Hook and have Jones mouthing off that it is a “total hoax” with “actors”, all the while earning a fortune from supplements and survival gear he promotes on his show.  One family has been harassed—I’d guess threatened—so often as a result of his disgusting tirades that they have had to move numerous times and remain in hiding.

Jeff mentioned how so many of us, and so easily, are moved to paranoia. If unhappy or depressed, we could accept our plight, assume what responsibility we may have for it, and work to improve our lot. Alternatively, we can regress to a state of blaming others, our imaginary enemies. You’d think just by natural selection paranoia would have vanished, since a paranoid stance doesn’t appear to be a very successful state of mind. “Still blaming your parents, eh?”  It can certainly motivate powerfully, however, and many of our most savage dictators have been extremely paranoid, Stalin and Hitler being prime examples.

The sun is setting now at 4:07PM. The clouds are intensely red/orange. My internal clock hasn’t yet readjusted from living in the tropics where old Sol is up and down at 6 throughout the year. Early darkness is just like when I was a kid in Seattle. I do like the long days of summer, however.

I am thankful for too much to name. However, the lists were the part of Moby Dick I didn’t much like. I suppose the gifts of life, health, and relationship top mine.  It is incredible to live, to love others and to be loved, and to be aware of much of it.