Commentary
The Vineyard is too beautiful for its own good, at least when it comes to climate change. It’s hard to look past the shimmering goldenrod and deep autumn ocean to see growing cracks in the Island’s foundation.
The soil, trees and plants — the powerful roots of wispy beach grass — keep this Island afloat. The land and sea provide food and shelter. Clean air and water sustain our human health. The beaches and parks, forests and farms, vast water views and bold hydrangeas are the fuel that fire the local economy. This is our foundation.
The Commission’s Second Chance
Public opinion is humming again over the roundabout following the surprise announcement last week by longtime Martha’s Vineyard Commission member Leonard Jason Jr. that he will ask the commission to rescind its vote on the controversial project.
Public Art for Public Education
In her classic essay, Street Haunting, Virginia Woolf searches the streets of London for the perfect lead pencil. It is dusk, the season approaching winter, and the lead pencil merely a pretext. She wants to be out and about discovering the charms, both high and low, of not just her city but also her uncharted self. Anything, really, could serve as a magnet to draw her forth from the humdrum metronome of her own familiarity.
With apologies to Ratty of Wind in the Willows, for many Islanders, autumn is the best season to mess about in boats. September and October, and even November bring excellent sailing weather.
On top of that, the harbors are not congested. In autumn, the busy, noisy harbors of summer turn into quiet fields of floating buoys, drifting seagulls and an occasional fish breaking the surface.
RED STOCKING TIME
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
Soup Supper Season
To some the Vineyard is a place of wealth and ease with an idyllic backdrop of beaches, rural vistas and busy summer days. And for a few months of the year, this is the dominant reality. But the facade fades, at first subtly, and then more drastically, as the off-season takes hold.
Those who do not know the pleasures of the quieter side of Island life will never fully understand that beneath its obvious beauty, the Island is mostly a reflective soul.