Letter from the Vineyard

Letter from the Vineyard

October 12, 2020

Indigenous People’s Day aka Columbus Day

The Sun Also Rises

Summer has departed; fall has arrived.  This last week has been spectacular; warm, not hot, morning clouds burned away by mid-morning sun, a slow turning of leaves, a day of wild storm, hinting something wicked this way comes; an island slouching toward winter, this morning grimly grey, the first hint of bone chill days to come.

Reading Erik Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile,” a grand insight into Churchill during the Blitz.  I’ve mentioned it before; it has sold like a beach read this summer as we parse the qualities of leadership.

Since last I wrote, Justice Ginsburg has passed, in death continuing her ability to be first, first woman to lie in state, first Jew.  A wonder in death as in life, mourned by many, her death adding fuel to the fire of woe in this annus horriblis. 

2020 is a year history books will mark, a pivot in time, place, way of life.  The world will be different as we walk or crawl forward.  

In a year shaped by coronavirus, we have seen the President recently afflicted, taken by helicopter to Walter Reed, treated with all the drugs that could be thrown at this elusive disease, as if he were in the final throws of the fight.  

Last Sunday, he did a joy ride around the hospital to acknowledge his unmasked supporters cheering him, exposing his Secret Service detail to the disease, forcing them into quarantine after exposure to someone with an active case.  The mind boggles.

More than thirty around him, so far, have also been diagnosed with the coronavirus; we might well be just at the beginning of the Trump super spreader moment, certainly more in his circle infected than in the entire country of Taiwan that week, though we will probably never know, contact tracing not allowed by this White House. 

The play witnessed since his diagnosis, surreal even by the surreal standards of this administration, approaches theater of the absurd.  

The Joint Chiefs of Staff are in quarantine; the White House Chief of Security hospitalized with the virus. Back in May, we discover, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows threw an indoor wedding for his daughter with seventy or more in attendance when local guidelines limited gatherings to ten.

We’ve seen the Vice Presidential debate.  Kamala, you avoided questions.  So did you, Mike Pence; you also lied, not very well.

President Trump seems erratic post hospitalization, whipsawing from one position to its polar opposite in hours; witness his decision to stop negotiations on a relief package one night to wanting a “really big deal” the next, now “signing off” on a $1.8 trillion deal.  My suggestion: watch McConnell.

Mr. Trump, a surfeit of steroids, perhaps?

Thirteen have been arrested for allegedly wanting to kidnap Governor Whitmer of Michigan so she could be “tried” by a group of White Supremacists. This is a bad movie plot. And real. 

We have gone back over 50,000 new cases a day.  New York is locking down areas of Queens and Brooklyn. Wisconsin is on the edge or in the red zone, the Dakotas are battered. Boston has risen above a 4% infection rate, resulting in pushing back school openings.

Sunday morning, I wandered through the restaurant behind the bookstore, bumped into a couple of people I knew, one an ex-Marine, who championed the theory we will only be safe with herd immunity, having to accept the inevitable millions of deaths to get there. He seemed ready to sign up.  

I’m not. Just for the record.

Researchers have found 24 planets that maybe more habitable than earth.  Might be a good thing.  The lungs of this planet, the Amazon rainforest, are about turn to savannah.  

In the meantime, I’ve experienced some picture-perfect Vineyard fall days, sweater cool, windblown, possibly perfect for a sail, ones to contemplate a good fall meal, perhaps squash soup, a hearty steak, a good stew.  Days to savor if you’re alive, sentient, despite the idiocy of the world; the kind of beauty to inspire poets, give flight to dreamers, even when the world crumbles, days to instill hope, even when it seems lost.

This entry was posted on October 12, 2020 at 11:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.