Live from Dover-Foxcroft, Maine

-
Still here in Maine,  on the road.  Working on a piece inspired by our attendance at the Newport Jazz Festival last week.  Almost read to post.  I'm here in a coffee shop in Dover-Foxcroft running out of fuel on my laptop.  Next few days and the piece will be ready, but I just can't pull it off today.  An aside: I ran into Leslie Fernow earlier today.  Leslie was a close associate of mine when we were both members of Physicians for Social Responsibility and campaigning against the proliferation of nuclear weaponry in the early '80s when I lived in Hartland, about 30 miles from here.  She gave us a tour of the Dover-Foxcroft community center she and others have worked to save and renovate.  Beautiful!  Tomorrow night there's a contra-dance at the center, and we hope to attend.  More pictures on the way.  This is just a teaser post.  -Rob

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A very nice little story

-
Image
  The six of us were a bit chilled but sun soaked as we rode up to Karma Coffee Bar and Bakery in Dallas for warm-up and refueling. This was a late November Salem Bicycle Club ride, 37 miles out and back.   Someone spotted a truck parked out front, with a rear window decal featuring a combat-style weapon and the wordplay “OreGUNian”.   I facetiously suggested that we inquire as to the capacity of the magazine on that semi-automatic*. My imagined stereotype of the truck’s owner was that he voted hard right, and that he stereotyped us (bicyclists) as hippie hard-leftists.   We laughed.   Good down to 30 degrees After some good coffee and carb loading, we spent two hours replacing all our winter riding gear (seems like it sometimes), and pulled our machines out, ready to roll. One of us habitually locks the bike every time, especially since it’s a high-end custom (really a good policy for us all).  There are downsides to locking, and one we rarely consider i...
Read more

Some thoughts after not talking for 6 days.

-
Image
  Last week, I drove 100 miles north from Salem OR. and parked my borrowed car at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center . Inspired by friends and readings, I wanted to be on retreat with others seeking to deepen our meditation practice. This would be a retreat held in noble silence, no speaking, reading, phones or other digital devices.   As I walked the grounds at Cloud Mountain, I would reach in my pocket to discover that there was nothing there.   No oblong device there, my pocket had achieved what we retreatants were leaning into: emptiness.   If you attend a 6 day retreat and maintain silence for the duration, stuff happens. Questions come up: who am I?, why am I?, what's my next step? Having a daily meditation practice as I have for a number of years is helpful, but for what?   Sometimes I think my meditation is done in order to check a box to get credit in the category of “spirituality”.  As in, "i f I don’t go to religious services, pray, chant, perform s...
Read more

Maybe This Will be Fun to Read

-
Image
Discussed : sloth and torpor, things we do, survival, Koalas  I always strive to make what I write tasty, at least aromatic, in that there is something about it that draws one in.  Curiosity is what I am counting on, in the sense that I actually hope this gets read and that it offers something.  How can I describe what happens to allow this blog space to be empty for over 4 months?  There are excuses that have something to do with everyday activities and responsibilities, but they turn out to be pretty lame excuses when you dig a bit deeper.  I've put "writing" on my identity resume as a thing I do, so to actually not do it creates anxiety.  Amazing to think that at a radical (real) level, this is simply a manifestation of my innate laziness.  Amazing, I AM Lazy!! Instead of writing, I worry about not having written. Instead of writing, I wonder about what to write.  That's uncomfortably accurate.  And yet...this awareness is an opportunity t...
Read more