Stuck in Vermont. I have moved, got married -- appropriately -- in a recycling plant, stood up to exchange vows in Burlington Friends Meeting. Here's to my new home and some of its bioregional disciples. Meet my new spouse Sophie, ex-concert flautist, artist, gardener, eco-agitator and tai chi-er (which she is doing in the pic):
She is for the birds in these wintry times. We have the climate of Minsk, Stockholm, Fargo.
The inset on the right shows the Green Mountains of the
Appalachian overthrust, without which the Abenaki "road that moves", aka "New England's west coast", would not exist, nor our summertime volunteer work in Grand Isle with weeds, seeds and flowerbeds.
Vermont is a small state, in fact, Lilliputian. Population 600,000, of which 40k live in the big town of Burlington (quite cozy). The state capitol Montpelier
(Mount-peel-yer) is even cozier at 7k. Its current mayor is a paid
lobbyist (cozier yet). There are two kinds of Vermonters: vertical, and horizontal (“flatlanders”) but they are hard to tell apart by their
plumage, which runs to earflaps, knitted hats and sox (from the last of the US factories) and checked shirts. For both sexes. (Here's
a winter
bird collection; and so as to distinguish male from female, a
summer
one.)
Vermonters are dedicated. At least in my circles. Town meetings, cooperatives, contra dances, organic food and drink, wilderness hikes, ecological everything. What the Excited States could be. Somewhere (perhaps) there is a Tea Party and chapters of NRA. Deer hunting is a religion. But the state also boasts bow hunters (who have their very own pre-season), paleolithic dieters, off-grid zero-carbon cabin builders and solar farmers. Along with maple syrup and artisanal cheese. Vermont is “a touch of heaven...the earth is sacred, the rivers, the mountains...a communion of living things”, as Thomas Berry said. Born in Greensboro NC, he founded a monastery at Greensboro VT, and in 2009 was buried there. Let him tell the rest of the story:
Vermonters are dedicated. At least in my circles. Town meetings, cooperatives, contra dances, organic food and drink, wilderness hikes, ecological everything. What the Excited States could be. Somewhere (perhaps) there is a Tea Party and chapters of NRA. Deer hunting is a religion. But the state also boasts bow hunters (who have their very own pre-season), paleolithic dieters, off-grid zero-carbon cabin builders and solar farmers. Along with maple syrup and artisanal cheese. Vermont is “a touch of heaven...the earth is sacred, the rivers, the mountains...a communion of living things”, as Thomas Berry said. Born in Greensboro NC, he founded a monastery at Greensboro VT, and in 2009 was buried there. Let him tell the rest of the story:
1 comment:
my wish for you is much happiness with your new spouse.
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