Letter from the Vineyard

Letter From New York 01 04 15 Living in a world of choices…

January 4, 2015

The sun has set and the lights in Claverack are blinking on, here on Patroon Street. If the family of deer trotted across the property, I missed them, as I was busy in the kitchen cooking for some friends who are coming for dinner.

Today I woke early, close to five and attempted to return to sleep but really couldn’t so eventually got up and made coffee. While it was brewing, a text came in from a friend down in Delaware who apparently was having the same kind of morning I was having. Feeling fretful and grey like the day, he took himself for a walk to the beach from where he sent me a picture of a beautiful but barren beach.

We had a text conversation for a few minutes and then he let me know he needed to call a friend who had just informed him, by text, that he was very ill with a form of leukemia.

That smacked the world into perspective.

While I have anxiety about moving into the New Year, it is not burdened with health fears and the prognosis of a limited horizon. It caused me to realize I have all kinds of options and opportunities in front of me. And it is with that knowledge I must move forward.

There was a task I have been delaying so I went to my laptop and finished it and got it off my desk. After showering, I went down into Hudson and went to Christ Church Episcopal for their 10:30 Sunday morning service. I was, unfortunately, a little late because there was a radio interview on NPR with Deborah Halber, who is the author of The Skeleton Crew, all about amateur sleuths who help solve the country’s coldest cases.

I know one of them well. His name is Todd Matthews and he solved a forty year old case known as The Tent Girl, an abandoned body wrapped in a piece of tent canvas for a shroud. Todd was active in The Doe Network, a group of hard-core individualists who become fascinated with particular cases and are like dogs with a bone. They won’t give up. He has parlayed his work into a job as Communications Director for the recently formed NamUs, National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

His work is fascinating. He was one of those amateurs who got it into him and he wouldn’t let go until the woman was identified. We’ve been friends now for ten years or so and while we don’t connect frequently, we have a place for each other in our lives. I admire him immensely.

So I was late to church, a thinly attended service this second Sunday after Christmas. Being a lapsed Catholic, I find solace in the services of the Episcopal Church, so like Catholicism but fundamentally different in their approach to many things. Mother Eileen, interim Rector of Christ Church, always goes out of the way to make me feel welcome.

Like many, I have a hard time concentrating on the sermon but it was a good one today, about carrying the Christmas spirit forward into the year, that all of us have good and evil in us and we make the choices day to day on which we’ll be.

At least that’s what I took away from it.

Hey, Hitler was said to have doted on children and Osama Bin Laden was many times a daddy.

It is now fully dark. I must go turn on the lights so my guests can find their way to my home and I will do my best to live in the choice of good over evil and, while I must acknowledge my anxieties, I must also remember all the good fortune in which I live.

Tags: Christ Church, Claverack, Deborah Halber, Hitler, Hudson, Mathew Tombers, Mother Eileen, New York, Osama Bin Laden, The Skeleton Crew, Todd Matthews
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Letter From New York 01 03 15 Snowflakes falling; tragedies and miracles

January 3, 2015

Outside, snow is falling, big, thick, wet flakes of snow, falling and covering the ground, making roads treacherous and the landscape beautiful. It started shortly after I drove into Hudson to deliver Holiday quiches to Alana Hauptman, proprietress of The Red Dot. I had some for her earlier in the season but when I went to deliver them, I couldn’t reach her and they stayed with me so long I felt the need to rid myself of them and to bake fresh for her, which I did this morning.

It was cold this morning in the cottage and shortly after rising; I set a fire in the Franklin stove to help warm the cottage and have used its wonders to keep a soft warmth flowing through the cottage all day.

After delivering the quiches, I returned home, following in the wake of one of the big, bruising snowplows that seem to relentlessly patrol the roads of Columbia County to keep them passable. We crawled along at half the speed limit as the roads are deteriorating rapidly. I’m home now for the evening. And tomorrow it is supposed to climb up into the fifties!

Ah, right on schedule! The deer are crossing in front of the window where I write, headed off toward the field beyond my woods. They stand proud on the tip of the hill before it slopes down to the farmyard.

It is a quietly good afternoon. Jazz plays, snow falls, deer roam, the cottage is full of the smells of a good day’s baking. In total, young Nick and I whipped up five quiches today in record time while doing some much needed straightening of things after the busy Holiday season.

For the first time all day, the cottage feels warm. I’ve just put another log into the stove.

Outside the safety of the cottage, the world continues its pace, full of tragedies and miracles. A seven year old survived the crash of her parents’ plane and walked through rough terrain to seek help. Everyone else on board perished. The story brought tears to my eyes.

As they did when I got a text from my friend Nick Stuart, letting me know that his long anticipated Green Card had arrived in the mail today and when I read it, my eyes watered up. It has been a long journey to getting one.

Things here seem piercingly close when I read about them or watch news on my laptop, having now been a cord cutter for three years now. I think it is the landscape with its raw beauty that makes all things seem closer to the heart.

It is what I have treasured about this time in the country. I have been closer to nature than I have ever been in my life, with time to notice the changes in the seasons and in the tenor of the days themselves.

Like noticing that the family of deer always seems to cross in front of my window when I sit down in the fading light of day to work on this blog. I have taken time to notice the snowflakes falling and the raindrops splattering into the drive.

Next week I will begin to go back to the city more often and am hoping that I don’t lose my sense of connection with life in the burly bustling that is New York.

Tags: Claverack, Columbia County, Mathew Tombers, New York, Nick Stuart
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Letter From New York 01 02 15 A week ends in a New Year…

January 2, 2015

The day dawned drab and dreary here in Claverack, a grey day, the kind that made you want to roll over and bury your head in your pillow. Grabbing my teddy bear to my chest, I did just that, the boy in me not wanting to face the day. But not long later, I was up and had my morning coffee and had a good hour perusing the New York Times.

The news today was filled with yesterday’s passing of Mario Cuomo, father of the current Governor of New York and a former Governor of the State himself. He was a big man who filled the rooms he was in and flirted with running for the Presidency more than once.

When he was Governor, I was always aware of who he was even though I wasn’t living in New York then. He died, interestingly enough, only hours after his son, Andrew, was sworn in for his second term as Governor of the State of New York.

He was a staunch voice for the liberal side of the Democratic Party, often stymied in his plans for the State by the dire finances New York endured when he was first elected. He served three terms, went into the private practice of law after being defeated by George Pataki in his fourth attempt for the office, became wealthy and watched his children grow into politicians and newscasters. Chris Cuomo of CNN is another son.

The day did not stay grey and in the early afternoon, the wonderful golden light that blesses the Hudson Valley showed and transformed the landscape. The deer crossed my yard.

Earlier in the day, I went out and walked the circle upon which I live with my friend Lionel. A squirrel perched on a tree branch, so steady as to seem a statue. We noticed trees that had been uprooted by some wind event in the last two weeks, including a birch tree in his yard and an oak in his neighbors.

We live on a circle, Patroon Street, a scattering of a dozen houses on lots from one to four acres, broad and spacious with scatterings of trees and wild overgrowth. During the summers I cannot see my neighbors as my two acres is all woods except for the clearing where the cottage stands. On the east side of my property is the Claverack Creek and on the other side there are only wild woodlands. Behind the northern edge of my little universe is a long open field belonging to a farm. Once when traipsing across my “back forty” I encountered a cow that had wandered onto my land.

There has been much stability here since I moved here thirteen plus years ago. I am sure that to all of us who live here, Rosemary’s Cottage will always be Rosemary’s Cottage even though she has passed and it has been sold, gutted and is being rebuilt by a couple up from the city.

Tonight’s sky is tinged with pink. What’s that saying? Red sky at night, sailor’s delight? If true, we will have a gentle day tomorrow. I have loved being here this fall and winter, having time to notice the rhythms and pacing of my little world.

The New Year begins. I will have more to pay attention and will probably be spending more time in the city than I have but probably less than I was. It will be an interesting thing to see how the New Year plays out.

Every Friday, I have a conversation with two friends who live in California, whom I have known now for twenty plus years, Medora and Meryl. When I met Medora she was Vice President of Development for USA Network and Meryl was about to become the Chairwoman of the Television Academy.

We gather by phone on Friday to support each other in life. Each of us shares and each of us supports and it has been a blessing. We have been doing this since early in 2001 and it is one of the constants of my life.

When we were talking today, I was realizing how blessed I am to have this ongoing support group. Exactly how we started is now lost in the mists of time but it is a great joy for me to stop for half an hour each week and share the joys and tribulations of the past week with two people who have known me so long and so well.

The sun fades. The barren trees stand stark against the light. The deer are now coming back across the land. A week ends. All is well in Claverack.

Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Claverack, Mario Cuomo, Mathew, Mathew Tombers, Medora Heilbron, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, Patroon Street
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Letter From New York 01 01 15 Passing from one year to the next…

January 1, 2015

The sun is setting again, just like it did last year and as it was when I finished the last Letter From New York, 2014. Just yesterday. Today, it is 2015 and, frankly, I started the day on the cranky side.

Somehow, during the day, I managed to work myself out of crankiness, a not usual feature of my personality. I listened to Zubin Mehta conduct the New Year’s Day performance of Vienna’s Philharmonic.

The day was spent unproductively except for a couple of loads of laundry and some other mundane household tasks. I took a short nap and felt better.

It is a brilliant first day of the year, chill but not really cold, with golden light playing across the woods outside my window. Unusually, there have been no deer sightings today.

Here in the little town of Claverack, all is peaceful.

It’s not so peaceful out there in the world.

A year ends and another begins in sadness. A transgender teen took her life; it appears, by putting herself in the way of a tractor-trailer. Such despair breaks my heart. In Florida, a schizophrenic man decapitated his mother with an ax because she was nagging him to take boxes to the attic. In Syria, the death toll from the war there climbed in 2014 to 76,000 and in Shanghai 36 people died in a stampede in the waterfront area not long after midnight. The bodies of victims of the AirAsia crash have started to be identified.

Life has a way of going on, flowing from one year into the next and stories from the end of 2014 continue to play out while new ones begin.

It is nearly two years until the Presidential election but the contenders are jockeying to be THE contender. Jeb Bush has resigned from board posts and Marco Rubio is seriously considering challenging Jeb Bush for the GOP top spot. And there is Chris Christie, too. The Democrats have Hillary and Joe Biden and maybe Elizabeth Warren. It will be interesting to watch the year unfold in politics.

Hillary has slipped a bit in some Democratic polls causing worry that she might be wearing out her welcome a bit as the Democratic front-runner. She hasn’t declared her intentions yet. I suspect she is being coy. And, of course, there is our own Governor Cuomo, who was inaugurated today for his second term as Governor at the newly built World Trade Center. He was sounding rather like he was interested in being something more than Governor of New York State.

Standing next to him was his long time girlfriend, Sandra Lee, whom I knew a bit back in the day in Los Angeles. She was dating a friend of mine then.

As I have been writing this, it has turned dark, the golden light has faded and I will turn on the Christmas lights in a few minutes. My tree still stands and will for a bit more time. I always have a hard time taking it down and surrendering the Holiday season to the fullness of the new year.

Tags: AirAsia, Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie, Claverack, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Mathew Tombers, Sandra Lee
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Letter From New York 12 31 14 Some thoughts at year’s end…

December 31, 2014

Outside, the sun is setting and I am prepping for my New Year’s Eve – as probably are all of you. I am following what has become my tradition of the last few years and I go down to Hudson, have dinner at the bar at Ca’Mea or the Dot and then attend the Red Dot’s annual New Year’s Eve party.

To avoid all the dangers of driving on New Year’s Eve, I check into the Inn at Ca’Mea and make it a bit of a holiday. I don’t have to worry about driving and I don’t have to worry about other drivers.

As I was driving back home from checking in, the obituary writer for the New York Times was being interviewed on NPR. She posited that the industry hardest hit by deaths during the year was Hollywood, with many of the last that went through the old studio system passing away, such as Lauren Bacall and Shirley Temple, as well as those who went too young, like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams, both having so much left to give. And let us not forget Louise Rainer, who died this week, having been the first to receive back-to-back Oscars for her work in the 1930’s. She lived to 104. Today saw the passing of the great character actor, Edward Hermann, best known for his work in Gilmore Girls.

This last day of the year is a good one for contemplation. To think about the ones who have gone before us and to hold close to our hearts the good things that have happened. I find it a bittersweet day and not one I particularly like. That’s one reason I make a plan for New Year’s Eve and probably make one that is not dependent on others.

As I often do, I peruse the stories breaking around the world and the world is going on its drumbeat. 2015 has already begun in Australia. New York security is supposed to be tighter than a drum. A two year old accidentally killed his mother when he reached into her gun-loaded purse.

Out in Asia, bad weather is hampering recovery efforts for the AirAsia flight that crashed. The news is the news; often not much good is reported. But I like to remember that good things happen, too. My friend, Mary Dickey, brought me a Christmas gift today, a battery powered toothbrush, just the right size for my backpack. We share a passion for brushing. I’m taking it with me tonight.

It is that blend of good and bad that makes the world so interesting and so unpredictable as well as frightening. Nature plays with us. It will snow in California tonight, I understand.

Dark is falling on Claverack. The old year is ending. The new one will begin. May you all have the Happiest [and safest] of New Year’s!

Tags: AirAsia, Edward Hermann, Lauren Bacall, Louise Rainer, Luise Rainer, Mary Dickey, Mathew Tombers, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Williams, Shirley Temple
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Letter From New York 12 30 14 The changing landscape around us…

December 30, 2014

Just as I sat down to write today, a veritable herd of deer crossed the yard, followed by one straggler who was obviously hurt, bounding as best she could on three legs while the rest were far ahead. It was touching and I instinctively wanted to run out and see what I could do for her – but I wouldn’t know and she is now long gone.

The sun is setting in the west; today, unlike the days before, was bright and sunny with brilliant cheer, chill but definitely not Minnesota cold. My brother told me it would be seven below there this morning. I woke to twenty-seven degrees. All the snow is gone now; the world looks more like a barren fall landscape than a winter wonderland.

The year is ending and everyone seems to be coming up with a top ten list, some of winners, some of losers but magazines are counting. Deadline Hollywood came up with part of its top ten films, which included FURY, UNBROKEN, AMERICAN SNIPER and Rory Kennedy’s documentary, LAST DAYS IN VIET NAM. Four of the five were war movies, which seems to have been on our mind this year.

It’s not surprising; we have been living with war for a long time now. Afghanistan is formally over and done but there are still boots on the ground and NATO still has a presence. Iraq and Syria burn and we have, of course, the Boko Haram in Africa.

Steven Pinker, author of THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, argues that overall violence is down from where it has historically been. This morning in The Times that sentiment was echoed with the caveat that because of Syria and Ukraine there has been an uptick in the last year but that there are “only” something like eleven conflicts happening when there used to be dozens.

Perhaps it just seems to be more to us in America because we have had Iraq and Afghanistan for so long and they don’t seem to be going away. We’ve had to face ISIS this last year, too. But all in all, over the course of my lifetime, it appears that overall violence has declined and while I find that hard to believe sometimes, the empirical evidence seems to point that way.

And that is good.

Now there is a pink tinge to the sky as the light of the day begins to fail; the bare trees claw the sky and make for a magic scene out the windows by my desk. It is a perfect time for contemplation and thought; soft jazz plays in the living room on Pandora.

Lights are beginning to come on around the neighborhood, soon the automatic lights will snap on as the dark descends.

As I sit in this bucolic setting, I say a quiet prayer for the families of the people on the lost Air Asia flight. Bodies and wreckage have been found; another Malaysian linked plane has been lost, the third this year.

My mind also goes to Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident who was given a suspended sentence for fraud. Thousands gathered in Moscow to protest the sentence and he joined them and was arrested again. It is suspected he was given a suspended sentence to avoid his becoming a political martyr. Putin has taken on all the powers of the Tsar, Autocrat of all the Russias. He just hasn’t crowned himself. Perhaps before it’s done, he’ll follow the example of Napoleon and put the crown on his own head.

Ah, darkness has fallen. The automatic lights have clicked on. I must go and prep for dinner with friends, in the seemingly unending string of dinner and cocktail parties.

Tomorrow, I must make a decision as to which of the two parties to which I am invited I will attend to ring out the old and bring in the new. Not bad decisions to have to make.

Tags: Air Asia, Alexei Navalny, American Sniper, Angelina Jolie, Fury, Isis, Last Days in Viet Nam, Mathew Tombers, Steven Pinker, Unbroken
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Letter From New York 12 29 14 Solace in the countryside…

December 29, 2014

Yesterday was a chill, dark, grey, desolate sort of day; so dark it required lights to be turned on in the house early in the day. My mood seemed to match the day and I had to forcibly choose not to be as gloomy as the day.

It had been my intention when I got up in the morning to get myself to church but I dawdled too much and my window of opportunity closed. I simply didn’t feel motivated to move.

The day brightened when my neighbors, the Karics, phoned and invited me as well as Lionel and Pierre over for “wine and nibbles” at 6:30. Jim and Pat have the loveliest home on the block and set out a feast of nibbles and we chatted late into the evening, about all manner of things.

This morning there is a bit of blue in the sky but the early morning sudden sun is now hidden behind clouds. I have an agenda of things to do today, one of which is find a birthday present for Pierre. He turns thirty today.

This is an interesting time, this week between Christmas and New Year’s. Many offices are closed or people have taken the time off of work. It feels like a time poised between events, a slow moving week of rest and relaxation.

The NY Times had a breakdown of what Mr. Obama has been doing on his vacation in Hawaii, golfing six times and bowling once. He played golf with the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who is now home and having what must be a terrible time as another airliner has gone down in the region and is probably at the bottom of the ocean. Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are all involved in what might be a hopeless search. The United States is on alert to help if requested.

Ah, the sun has come out and is casting a golden glow across the landscape out the windows where I am writing. My stand of trees glistens in the light. Squirrels are romping across the gravel drive, looking, it appears, for crumbs. It is another day in the country.

It is so peaceful here, in my little corner of the world. I know that the world out beyond ii is not peaceful but I find respite and solace in the quiet of my world.

Twenty thousand strong was the crowd that came out to say good-bye to Officer Ramos, shot down execution style in New York last week. Many of the police officers turned their backs on Mayor DeBlasio as he gave the eulogy. They blame him for having encouraged protests to the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, two black men killed by police officers earlier this year in separate parts of the country, one in Missouri and one on Staten Island, here in New York. The man who killed Officer Ramos and his partner said they were revenge killings.

The NY Times, which I check every morning on my iPhone, is full of things that are sobering. It always is. The world is a sobering place every morning and every morning this fall that I have been at the cottage, I find my solace in the rhythms of nature as reflected in my yard.

Tags: Air Asia, Claverack, Eric Garner, Jim Karic, Mathew Tombers, Michael Brown, NY Times, Pat Karic
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Letter From New York 12 27 14 Christmas is winding down…

December 27, 2014

For the first time in a week, there is music on in the house that isn’t Christmas carols. Pandora is playing simple classical music from the Romantic Period. It is a nice break.

Earlier today I went off and had brunch at my friend Paul’s home over in East Chatham with his daughter and her fiancé. Good food, good conversation. Karen and Andrew went out on their quads and Paul and I reminisced. We’ve now known each other through twelve years and have a shared history; he has been a wonderful friend. We used to have a standing date for Saturday nights at the Dot until he began to spend less time up in Columbia County. His home is for sale here, part of his divorce settlement and should he buy another house it will be probably in New Jersey, closer to his daughter and her family.

They had been at my party last night and all of us were having a slow day. It was a good party and I was exhausted by the end of it, having been cooking and cleaning for three straight days – all of it pretty good, if I say so myself. The Christmas roast was not perfect but most of it was pretty darn good.

I have found myself very contemplative the last three days. It has been a joyous Christmas with good friends and I found myself also wanting more companionship than I have had recently. The cottage is a lovely place and I found myself wanting to share it over Christmas with someone. Perhaps it is a passing mood or an openness to something new in my life in the new year.

On some levels I am sorry to see 2014 go; it had some splendid times, like my train trip to Los Angeles with my friend Nick Stuart for the installation of our friend Eric as pastor at a church in Santa Monica, not far from where I had once lived. And though I sometimes want to stop the flow of time, I can’t. Each day slips away into the next, ferrying us into the future.

Perhaps some of my nostalgia is that I am also apprehensive about what will come in 2015. It is mostly a blank slate and I am getting itchy to be engaged again. It will be interesting to find out what it will be.

There will be no New Year’s resolutions. I will do my best to keep faithful to the ongoing resolutions of my life.

Keeping the news mostly at bay, I have celebrated the joys of living on earth, beautiful landscapes and good friends and have not let the news of the riven world disturb me much these days. I will pay more attention in the morning I am sure but in this little space that is “Christmas” I have attempted to focus on the joyful little things that make live sweet and wonderful.

Two thousand years or so ago, a man named Jesus was born and he changed history and created one of the great movements of all time. It has spawned great generosity and sad wars. But those were the men who came after him that did those things. He preached peace and forgiveness, which I am doing my best to remember this time of year.

Tags: Christmas, Jesus, Mathew Tombers, Paul Krich
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Letter From New York 12 25 14 A wonderful Christmas…

December 26, 2014

It is Christmas Day, a morning that came almost spring like in Claverack with temperatures in the mid-50’s. I woke this morning with a list of things to do as I am cooking again. Before ten this morning, I had a roast in the oven [foolproof, says the recipe] and was making asparagus soup.

At 11:30, Nick, his partner, Beth, and their lovely daughter, Alicia, aged three, arrived for our exchange of Christmas presents. They presented me with a new tablecloth and new flannel sheets for my bed, both things I needed. They were presented with a series of gifts and I learned Beth likes perfume. I gave her some and she was ecstatic. Note to self: perfume for Beth at Christmas. Nick liked the L.L. Bean fishing vest I gave him, as he is an avid fisherman as well as the wireless speaker for his phone, which he can use in the shop when he is working.

Alicia loved her Bunny Rabbit and named him Happy Rabbit and she liked her “Frozen” comforter. The names of the characters elude me but Alicia knows and that’s all that matters.

When they left to go on to another grandparent’s home, I finished the asparagus soup and made acorn squash with butter and nutmeg. I boiled some baby new potatoes. When all was said and done, the roast was a little dry. The soup was terrific as was the squash. All in all, it was a fine Christmas Day feast, finished with pumpkin pie and French Press coffee.

A moment ago, Larry texted me they were safely home, and had had another wonderful Christmas. And it was a wonderful Christmas.

And I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Out there, the world is doing whatever the world is doing. I am not paying attention tonight. It is quiet and peaceful and, I think, safe here and I am rejoicing in that peace and safety because not everyone has that.

There’s not much I can change in the world but if I can add a moment of peacefulness to that world, I will. It is Christmas. Let us take the spirit of Christmas into the world every month of the year and make the world a better place.

Tags: Alicia Vergara, Christmas, Claverack, Larry Divney, Mathew Tombers
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