I read an article in the Economist recently about how Kamala Harris is an excellent candidate, but questioned whether she can govern well. It worried over her experience with international affairs, her track record with the economy and immigration, etc.
I have thought about this and there are some valid points. I then thought some more and have decided that I don’t care.
The damage that Donald Trump could do as President far outweighs the risk of limited effectiveness of Kamala Harris. She strikes me as having integrity, which is in sharp contrast to her opponent, and I believe that’s important. She sets a decent example and an example of decency. Her speeches are sometimes cringeworthy, but I am hopeful that a) she will surround herself with strong, talented, committed people, and b) she will be a fast learner. I don’t know if either of those hopes are realistic or likely, but I’m willing to take that chance. I’m not willing to take a chance on a Donald Trump presidency. What an asshole.
My youngest child is an outdoors-minded kid. Actually, all of my four children love the outdoors, which is rewarding for us all, but this one is ALWAYS outdoors. He’s not had an indoor job since he graduated from college (is that an indoor job?). Like everyone in my family, he loves Maine, especially the little island we live on, Deer Isle, and the charming town of Stonington.
Stonington is a little lobstering town. The town is small and charming, but it also happens to be the largest lobster port in North America (maybe the world?). It’s a rocky coastline and beautifully unspoiled. The year-round population is less than 1,000, but people make the effort to come up here in the summer to see the gorgeous scenery and relax. Even folks from southern Maine (Kennebunk, Portland, etc) come up here and say “oh this is REAL Maine!” I fell in love with this place well over 50 years ago when my parents started coming up here for summers. They ended up moving here full time after retiring. After losing Dad and selling his house, my wife and I bought back in. We got incredibly lucky and found a parcel of land on a small peninsula with 15 acres, on Webb’s Cove, just outside of Stonington. We built a house and it’s got water on both sides of the land and hiking trails all through the woods. We all love it and it’s the family flag firmly planted (figuratively speaking). Frankly it’s dog heaven! My dogs don’t wear a leash much between May and November at least.
So then I started thinking about my own retirement….
My son (youngest, referenced above) decided he wanted to start his own business and asked if I would help. He had become a licensed kayak guide working as a summer job for an outfitter here on the island. The outfitter – Old Quarry Ocean’s Adventures – went out of the business when the owner got tired of it after 20+ years. It was a real loss to the island as people enjoyed going there. Will decided he loved the guiding – being on the water, working with customers, and was interested to learn what it would take to run things on his own. I was finishing up my last IT firm and trying to decide to look for another or not.
Choosing to retire was not as easy a decision as I thought it might be when I thought about it back in the day….it turned out that I liked working. I liked managing people, and leading sales organizations…and it scared me to just stop doing that. I wasn’t going to sit around, play golf and drink beer (much). I knew that I wanted to help some non-profit organizations, and Will’s new company idea represented a new idea. I said yes.
I suggested we put together a business plan, and a P&L. “Okay Dad, but what’s a P&L?” was his answer. That gives you a sense for where we started. We made a plan and gave the company a name – Osprey’s Echo Sea Kayaking! Ospreys and osprey nests are all around us here on the cove. We acquired assets (boats, paddles, and other equipment) and developed a plan. In our first year we decided to launch tours from our own property. This was not a strategic decision – it was our only choice. As gorgeous as the kayaking is (i will get to that) there are not many places to launch safely on this island. There’s a town ramp – it gets way too crowded and there’s no parking. There’s the ‘sand beach’ but launching boats there is frowned upon as sunbathers and swimmers gather there. Our property is on the water, which is good…but it’s very tidal, which presents a problem. Every day, each tour was a new math problem – will we have enough water to launch? and to return? If not, we would have to but the kayaks on the truck and ‘truck’ them to another launch spot. (well, you can’t live here without a little pickup truck, after all!)
Our first year was good fun and looking back on it we learned a lot. We learned that we need a booking system, rather than pen and paper. We learned that we need to charge customers up front, when they book, or people can cancel at their leisure, leaving us high and dry (so to speak). And we also learned that our property is not ideal for running the business, as beautiful as it is.
Then we got lucky. A small parcel of nearby property came up for sale in 2020. It is an acre, with a small 1-bedroom cabin, and sits on the same cove we are situated on, but it has a ramp, and it also enough water for us to launch even at low tide. We snagged it. It seemed expensive at the time, but it changed everything for the company. We built a couple of kayak racks so we could store all our boats there. Good news, the fellow renting the cabin at the time was an excellent carpenter. Presto – two kayak racks!
We licensed a booking system – PeekPro – which allowed customers to book trips from our (new) website (www.ospreysecho.com). We decided on the culture and ‘vibe’ we wanted, as there are a couple of other kayak companies already on the island. One is led by a very experienced fellow and the other by a not so experienced fellow. They both launch from the town ramp. There were real pluses to being on our own private launch spot. We can launch into the beauty and peace and quiet of Webb Cove, and then make our way to the islands. Those launching from the town ramp will know that it’s crowded, there’s no parking and you launch right into the harbor where the lobster boats are. No prize for guessing which launch spot has more wildlife to see :-).
It is a tribute to the diversity of skills in our family that we got up and running quickly. Will’s oldest sister Katie is a marketing maven, expert at social media and our social media presence has been outstanding from the start. His other sister Sarah works for a bank and her sophistication with finances and cash flow comes in real handy for Will. His older brother was in medical school when we started and a bit short on time, but always pitched in with expertise on risk management and provided a lot of muscle when he was in town.
We got up and running at our new launch spot – 35 Big Pond Road in 2022. The little cove is the ‘big pond.’ Somebody’s idea of a joke, i guess. Will is the kayaking expert. I am the business expert – teaching him about customer service from beginning to end, as the way to build a reputation. We make sure that every call is answered. Every single one. We make sure that every email is answered. Every single one.
This is now our fourth season (third season at Big Pond Road) and things go smoothly. We have a system for taking bookings, greeting customers, getting them into their gear and on the water. We have a plethora of routes to take, multiple tour options (2-hour, 4-hour, full day, overnight camping, lessons, custom tours) and a post-tour ritual of taking polaroid photos, putting them in our guest book and offering customers a small choice of merchandise if interested (hats, water bottles, coasters, post cards made by Katie).
We didn’t really think about it at the start, but we couldn’t be more fortunate. The Stonington archipelago is made up of over 70 islands and is considered by many who talk about kayaking online to be the best sea kayaking on the east coast. The islands provide a sheltered environment for paddling, hosting and seeing wildlife and an almost unbelievable set of scenery. It’s pretty easy for us to impress visitors to the island.
There are many reasons not to admire (much less vote for) Donald Trump. He lies – about everything, apparently. He’s pretty clearly racist. He’s all about himself, to the point of being more of a mob boss than a politician. He basically is a cult leader, giving “permission” to so many people who don’t care much about ethics and morals.
Aside from all this, he’s just so damned grumpy. Think about it – when do we see him laugh, tell a joke, or even smile? When does he say something upbeat, about anything. When does he demonstrate that he can laugh at himself, one of the characteristics my dad instilled in me while growing up. I can’t think of a single time when I have watched him and thought – gee, that was a nice move.
Aside from that – he doesn’t have a dog. Sorry, i don’t trust a President who doesn’t have a pet. Just kidding really, as I don’t even know if Kamala Harris has one…though it seems clear from the press that Tim Walz does.
Vote for a grump? A grump who has recruited a weirdo? Not a chance.
The book I am reading now is An Unfinished Love Story, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. She must be one of my favorite authors and this is her latest book. It is a ‘personal history of the 1960s’ in the USA, based on her own experiences and particularly those of her husband Dick Goodwin, who was a speechwriter and confidant to JFK, LBJ and RFK.
I am progressing toward the end of the book and there is a chapter describing the pressures on President Lyndon Johnson about the Vietnam war. Johnson accomplished a great deal toward his domestic agenda, The Great Society, but got his panties in a bunch about the war. He kept doubling down on the war, sending more and more troops, in the face of mounting protests back home in USA. Eventually, his trusted confidant Dick Goodwin came out publicly against the war, as did Bobby Kennedy and many others. Johnson was running for re-election in the midst of this and Goodwin was working with McCarthy and Kennedy to defeat his former mentor and friend LBJ for the Democratic nomination.
On March 31, 1968 Johnson made a stunning speech. He announced that he was preparing to end the war and withdraw troops…and had decided not to seek another term as President. President Johnson withdrew his nomination.
Doris Kearns Goodwin said that “Johnson had done something extraordinary by putting the country above his own ambitions.”
I read this line today, just days after President Joe Biden had withdrawn his candidacy for a second term and couldn’t help but think that Doris must be considering writing the same thing…that Joe put his country above his own ambitions.
I – like many – applaud what Joe Biden did and believe he is not just a decent man, but was a good president. He did the right thing by withdrawing, however, and I feel hope now for the first time. Can Kamala Harris win and keep that first class asshole and his proposed Vice-asshole out of the White House? I sure hope so.
These are a few words from the latest book I am reading, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s a beautiful book, and in the chapter I am on now she reminisces about how empty her heart felt when her daughters went off to college, and she tried to avoid coming home to an empty house. I get it.
My four wonderful kids come to visit every year in the summer. They make the journey to our home on an island off the coast of Maine and they stay for as long as they can afford to. When they are all here it is chaos, a wonderful glorious chaos. The house is full of them, their partners, our dogs, their dogs. When the weather is great we are out in the water, kayaking, or hiking in the woods. I put on a huge lobster boil for a big night in the garden and we drink too much and dance in the grass and don’t want it to end.
Then they leave. Today the last of them left and I am left alone in the house (my wife is driving her to an airport and then heading elsewhere for a week). I hate it, as the time togerher feels like it slipped away, way too quickly. It happens every year, and any time they come to visit now, because these family reunions are precious and few and remind me of the wondeful time it was to have them growing up in the house together. We were a lucky family, and we all know it.
The day the first one went off to college was the first time I felt like this – empty. All of us – me and my wife and the other 3 kids – drove her to school, and the moment we had to leave her we all hugged and cried and I will never forget it. My wife set the table for 6 for days before remembering she was…gone. Then the others left in turn, and the last one…oh, the last one was just as hard as the first one. We dropped him off and couldn’t stop hugging him, and cried most of the way home…to an empty house. So on days like today I remember all of those moments.
The best thing to do is go take the dogs for a walk, read my book, go to bed early (they keep me up way past my usual bedtime when they are here) and wait for the next time we are to all be together. Wait! That’s only in two months! One of them is getting married and we will all of course be there. Can’t wait.
This is my second post in a row inspired by an extraordinary book. This book is Cuba: An American History, by Ada Ferrer. Ferrer is a professor at NYU and is Cuban. This book taught me more than I have ever learned about this island. It is a lively read, great stories about the personalities, and goes all the way back to Christopher Columbus and ends in the fairly current day, even referring to Trump’s and Biden’s presidency. Cuba is truly American, and she cautions people in the US not to think that the United States is the only American country, as their are a great many ‘american’ countries in addition to the USA….but I never knew how close Cuba came to becoming part of the USA. A shared legacy in slavery, their escape from Spanish rule, and then of course the diplomatic cold war with the US, that only ended when Barack Obama was President. We learn about the various revolutions and leaders in that country, including Fidel Castro’s of course.
The more I read the more I think the USA was (almost?) as much a historical colonial power as Great Britain was in their heyday. We (the USA) tried to force our will on the people of Cuba even insisting on our input to their constitution and our military presence. Yet now we have the pendulum swung all the way to isolationism by some, including Mr Trump. I do believe that the United States has been more a force for good than not over time, but some of these stories – read this book – make us seem pretty self-centered at times.
I read to learn and I sure learned a lot from this one.
I recognize that I am taking on a topic here that is rife with controversy and complexity. I am jewish by background (Ashkenazi jew from eastern Europe according to my dna test). I grew up in the United States where we are all taught and hence accepted that Israel is our friend and that supporting Israel above all else is the right thing to do. Of course much of the history from the holocaust and the establishment of the nation of Israel are horrific enough for us to cheer them on…unconditionally, it seems.
As a result, I grew up with no education whatsoever about the people who lived in Palestine when the Jews moved it to create Israel. The Palestinians were portrayed as terrorists who simply wanted the jews gone.
Partially as a result of the recent conflict, I have finally begun to educate myself (no thanks to all my schoolteachers while growing up). I have read a number of books – firstly both of Sandy Tolan’s books, The Lemon Tree and Children of the Stone. They are excellent, by the way. I then picked up The Hundred Year’s War on Palestine, written by Rashid Khalidi. This last one is clearly written from the Palestinian point of view, but I do believe that Sandy Tolan brought no axe to grind. His books told wonderful stories of both Israeli and Palestinian families as a means for sharing history.
As a result, I am now surely dangerous with some amount of knowledge, but clearly no expert. I am, however, more educated than I was when I simply read Thomas Friedman’ s column regularly and (all of) his books.
I see now that the Palestinians have been subjected to periods of real cruelty by the Israelis, basically jettisoning them from their homes and land and then acts of cruelty to keep them as an occupied colony. All of this was done with the unqualified support of the US of course. It does not seem that the US made much of an effort to support the Palestinian desire to have their own homeland as well – the one that Israel have largely kicked them out of. The Palestinians had made no effort to court the Americans, explain their thinking or seek support; hence the Israelis outmaneuvered them at every turn.
We now see Netanyahu making war – with some justification, mind you, given the October 7 Hamas invasion. My views however are not based solely on current affairs or Netanyahu’s irresponsible leadership. This started well before him.
I am now a man with a jewish background (admittedly not a practicing jew) who has a great deal of sympathy for both peoples – the jews and the Palestinians. This part of the world is so much more complicated than most people realize. I know that reading a handful of books doesn’t make me completely informed…just a lot more informed than I was.
This is a question asked by Dalia, an important figure in Sandy Tolan’s outstanding book, The Lemon Tree. She is referring at that moment to how someone has dressed Itzhak Rabin in a German nazi uniform, to make a point. She figuratively shakes her head at the actions of this far right actor who thinks the Israelis should never agree to peace with the Palestinians. There are similar characters on the Palestinian ‘side’ of the argument of course.
I read that line several times and it made me think of Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and others. Are the only people who disrespect boundaries of decency when exercising their right to free speech? Of course not…but they seem the loudes and most disturbing. Trump used the word “reich” in a recent speech. He calls President Biden awful names and tells lies to rile up his supporters who drink it all in. He has legitimized this kind of free speech – the kind that goes too far.
Where are the limits? great question, and who gets to decide. Seems like a slippery slope, on the surface. Boundaries require good judgment. I have always told my kids that “its the decisions you make” that define your life…this means learning to exercise good judgment. Who taught Donald Trump or Marjorie Taylor-Greene good judgment? Apparently no one.
Politics can be divisive as hell, as everyone knows. I lean liberal on most things and I have many friends who do as well. My wife’s family were conservative and she grew up that way, but has changed a lot. My kids are pretty liberal as evidenced by the take on social issues like LGBTQ, abortion, racism, etc.
I also have many conservative friends. I love them just as much as my liberal friends and their take on some issues seems logical, so I respect them, even if I have a different view. It’s not all clean and separate.
I don’t think I have or can have friends who are of the “MAGA persuasion.” I don’t know if I can respect someone’s view that Donald Trump is the answer. It just fails the integrity test for me – the guy is a bad guy. He lies (about virtually everything), lacks respect for women, for people of color, for anyone who doesn’t profess loyalty. Those who follow him seem like they are in a religious order of some sort and it just doesn’t make sense to me.
Nope I won’t be able to make friends with them. I just shake my head and wonder if they will look back some years from now at how they were duped by this ‘mafia boss’ of a celebrity.
It is March 2024 and every morning when I look at the news it depresses me. Here is a sample of today’s headlines:
Donald Trump is on a path to win the Republican nomination and is polling ahead of Joe Biden. Could this bombastic asshole get elected President again? One news article said it is prompting feelings of powerlessness among some Americans. Count me in.
The Israel-Gaza war is ongoing. Rumors of cease fire seem to go up and down every day and thousands of people are dying. The issues are so complex it’s like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube.
Russia is winning. The Ukraine are losing and my country is standing by (at least in Congress) doing nothing.
Climate change and sea-level rise are causing devestating effects around the world. Is there anything that can be done about it now or is it too late.
I could go on – too many guns, restrictions on women’s rights, and the world feels more divisive than ever.
I try to skim the articles about Trump (seriously, how do so many people fall under his sway?) but then I get to the ones about Ukraine and Gaza. I know there is still kindness in the world. Sometimes it feels like it is just being drowned out.
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