Alexandersmap

    Category: Travel

    • The Albany Plan of Union

      The Albany Plan of Union

      Ben Franklin looked around the colonies and saw that they were each operating independently from each other.  With the looming threat of the French and Indian War presenting a clear and present danger to all of the colonies, it made sense to form alliances for each of the colonies to support the other should a threat arise.  Franklin’s experience in Philadelphia, where he organized a militia and defensive positions on the Delaware River to protect the city from French Privateers who taking the opportunity to pillage coastal settlements.  He saw strength in unity, and used the example of the Iroquois as inspiration for likeminded individuals to organize and discuss the prospect of united the colonies.  Franklin published articles and the cartoon above in his Philadelphia Gazette newspaper, which had the desired effect of bringing together likeminded individuals to push for the unified colonies.

      Albany was chosen as a central place, and in 1754 delegates were chosen from several of the colonies to form the Albany Congress to discuss the union.  Of the 13 colonies, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maryland and Pennsylvania participated in the Albany Congress.  The delegates met at the Albany “Stadt Huys”, the original state house in the region.  This plan of unification was the first formal meeting on this topic amongst the colonies.  Ultimately England and the governors of the colonies proved too much to overcome and the proposal developed in Albany was refused, but the concepts discussed during the Albany Congress was the root of the United States that would form twenty years later with the Declaration of Independence.

      At Albany the delegates proposed a “Grand Council” and a “President General” from England as leader.  Concepts that would later become the United States’ Congress and President.  Another key concept that Franklin was developing around this time was representation as a prerequisite for taxation.  The colonies were either “English” and warranted representation, or they were an “enemy state” annexed by England.  This proved a catalyst for what happened two centuries later.

      While Ben Franklin was the most famous of the delegates in the Albany Congress, there were many influential people chosen as delegates.  One of the delegates from New Hampshire was Theodore Atkinson, who had risen to be a Chief Justice in the colony and also a Colonel in the militia.  Theodore Atkinson owned a farm in Plaistow, New Hampshire.  In 1767 the land that the farm was on split from Plaistow to form a new town called, of course, Atkinson.

      As a resident of Atkinson for 24 years I’d heard stories of Theodore Atkinson, but never made the connection to Benjamin Franklin that the Albany Congress represented.  It seems that my 2H18 reading list is already paying dividends.

    • Filling the Void

      Filling the Void

      Looking out into the woods behind my house you might see a thick stand of trees, deep green leaves, and dappled sunlight.  I see the void.  That dappled sunlight shines through a clearing made when a massive oak tree snapped in two during a storm earlier this year.  The morning after it happened I walked out to survey the tree, and posted a picture of it on Instagram at the time.

      Months later we have sunlight streaming down to the ground where for years there was nothing but shade.  The natural order of things if for the void to be filled, and over time that sunlight will spur growth in the woods as trees that patiently waited their turn accelerate their growth.  There’s an excellent book about this that describe it better than I could.

      At this point in my life, I’ve seen enough people depart this earth to understand the analogy that this big oak tree represents.  As the giants in our lives pass we must fill the void left in their absence.  People drift apart or we lose loved ones.  Staying connected is challenging, and ironically the technology that connects us more easily creates disconnections in other ways.  Having a conversation and making eye contact with someone is in our DNA.  Texting or liking a post on Facebook isn’t quite enough.  As I get older I recognize my own role in filling the void more than ever.  Empathy and love are the cornerstones, but being present to recognize and help fill that void are essential.  So I’m trying to be more present and see the voids that I previously hadn’t.

      Earlier this month I glanced over at the empty flower box on the shed in my backyard.  The builder wasn’t thinking about gardeners when he or she built it, they were thinking about quickly tacking something on the front of the shed and moving on to the next shed.  As a result the flower box is undersized, which requires extra care in watering and feeding plants you put in it.  Compounding this is that the shady corner of the yard the shed sits in doesn’t give enough light for many annuals that you might put in a flower pot like this.  As a result I usually hadn’t bothered with planting anything in it.

      This year I decided to fill this little void in my backyard garden and sought out shade loving plants that could thrive in this tiny ecosystem stapled to vinyl siding.  Buying plants for me is a lot like playing music.  With music I usually know what to play at the time based on the mood of the room and the audience (well, as long as the audience likes music I like).  With gardening I usually know it when I see it.  Sometimes I get it horribly wrong, but most of the time the garden forgives me (even if teenagers won’t forgive my playlists at times).

      The resulting fuchsia and coleus combination has indeed thrived in this flower box.  A once blank space in the garden has become a favorite spot for me.  And the hummingbirds seem to appreciate the addition as well.  Sometimes the voids in our lives announce themselves abruptly, and sometimes they’re right in front of you for years.  I’m glad to have filled this one.

    • Past Peak

      Past Peak

      It’s hard to believe, but the flowers in the garden are past peak.  While still beautiful, it’s clear that the vibrant burst of color seen just days ago is waining.  In particular, the Yucca and Tiger Lillies have faded slightly, and some of the bee balm is starting to fade as well, though still putting their best face forward.

      Such are the seasons.  We still have a long way to go of course.  Sunflowers, daisy’s, sedum, dahlias and many more mid-to-late season bloomers are all still vigorous and ready to join the fray.  Indeed there are many blooms to go.  But just as the days are getting steadily shorter, so too the garden changes its complexion as July marches onward.

      At 52 I can certainly see this in myself as well.  Perhaps past peak, but still – hopefully – a long way to go.  But just as the garden suffers when neglected, so the body breaks down when I eat poorly and don’t exercise.  The garden serves as a reminder and an example.  Best to listen.

    • Potato Donuts

      Potato Donuts

      While in Portland, Maine on business today I had a thought bubble creep above my head: Potato donuts!  I know, your Portland area thought bubble might have been lobster or blueberries or beer, and generally I might have thought the same thing.  But today it was potato donuts.

      This didn’t just come to me out of nowhere.  I remember watching an episode of Chronicle where they visited a potato donut shop in Portland and I thought at the time that I’d have to remember that next time I visited Portland.  Well, today was that day.  The mind surely works in mysterious ways, but there’s nothing mysterious about donuts.  They’re a guilty pleasure for sure.  Donuts are trendy right now, taking over where cupcakes left off.  Yeast donuts are tasty…  at least if they aren’t from the pink and orange place.  Apple cider donuts are heavenly.  But potato donuts?  New to me.

      A quick Google search yielded three potato donut shops nearby.  They were all The Holy Donut, which is the place featured on Chronicle.  I chose the closest one, which was the original on Park Street.  I got there around 1 PM, which is relatively late in the day for donuts, but they still looked great and I still had to wait in a line to get them.  The things I do for research.

      Not wanting to be a glutton, or at least not wanting to appear that I was a glutton, I ordered a half dozen in flavors ranging from dark chocolate sea salt to fresh lemon to triple berry glaze.  I gazed at the maple bacon donut but talked myself out of it.  These flavors were provoking!  Indeed, they provoked me into buying a seventh donut, a toasted coconut with coconut milk glazed delight that was taunting me from the rack.

      First impression; very moist, not as sweet as I would have expected, and chewier than a yeast donut.  But tasty.  On second thought, I haven’t had a big enough sample to really know for sure.  I need to try another one for desert tonight to really get a better handle on these things.

    • First Sail

      First Sail

      Sailing season got off to a great start with a sunset cruise last night on Fayaway.  Any sail out of the Merrimack River begins with motoring out of the river.  There’s some setup involved in this process, and there’s a fair amount of checking out the stream of power boats zooming past you.  Sailing proceeds at a different speed than power boating.  There are benefits to both, but at that moment I wasn’t interested in getting someplace faster.

      Approaching the mouth of the Merrimack the channel zig zags sharply.  Best to pay attention to the navigation buoys in this stretch.  Fishermen line the shores of Plum Island and Salisbury Beach fishing for striper and whatever else is biting today.  Seals bob in the current looking us over curiously.  The ride out is long but always different.

      Steady winds greeted us out of the mouth of the Merrimack, and we headed north for a run up the coast.  It’s always amazing how far away from your day-to-day you feel when you get out on any body of water.  The Gulf of Maine certainly gives you that feeling.  Today’s sail takes us three miles off the coast of Salisbury, Seabrook and Hampton before we tack and make our way back towards the river.  A simple sail all things considered.  Nothing overly technical about it, just pleasant conversation and dodging lobster pots.

      Just before we tacked for home we saw splashing off to Starboard.  At first we thought perhaps whales, but as we drew closer we saw fish jumping out of the water and splashing down to the surface.  We were looking at dolphins hunting for fish in the rip, and dozens of fish exploding out of the water to escape.  The fish shined silver and gold in the reflection of the setting sun, and indeed looked like the rays of the sun as they arced outward in their attempt to live to see another day.  Always in moments like this I regret not having my camera with me.  These aren’t moments when an iPhone can do the job.

      So we sailed back to the Merrimack River, and when the wind finally petered out motored the rest of the way.  The ebbing tide combined with the current from the river made it a slow go coming back in, and the midges were able to make their presence known in swarms.  Thankful for bug spray, sunsets, good friends, a sound boat and another great day on the coast of somewhere beautiful.

    • March of the Giants: Roadside Paul Bunyan Statues

      March of the Giants: Roadside Paul Bunyan Statues

      An interesting phenomenon that I’ve seen in my travels around the northeast is a crop of Paul Bunyan statues sprinkled around the region.  I’ve seen them in Cheshire, Connecticut, Georgetown, Massachusetts, and Elmsford, New York.  I’ve seen pictures of one in Bangor, Maine.  Some of these, like the one in Elmsford, aren’t called Paul Bunyan, but “muffler man”.  But we all know it’s really a Paul Bunyan statue in disguise.

      These roadside curiosities are generally used to draw attention to a business.  And they do the job year in and year out.  Of those that I’ve run into, the statue in Cheshire is my favorite.  Not because it’s especially detailed, it’s more that its the first one I really paid attention to.  And there’s a great story of the guy who owns it sticking a flag pole in Paul’s hands because there was no restriction on the height of a flagpole but there was objection to the size of the statue when he originally put it up.  That’s a true yankee right there.

    • Peggy’s Cove

      Peggy’s Cove

      Standing watch over the rocky coast of Halifax’s Peggy’s Point is a small lighthouse built in 1915.  The lighthouse, modest in comparison to other in the region, grows more famous yearly as tourists flock to Peggy’s Cove, make their way out to the point and post pictures in front of this iconic backdrop.  Interestingly, the lighthouse doubled as the post office for many years, which seems impractical if only because the lighthouse is set out on the point, where something closer to the cove would seem more efficient.

      To me the cove is the real star, as houses and boathouses crowd right up to the edge of the water.  This is convenient when you make your living on the sea and walking from your house.  These houses are charming and make for a great Instagram post.  Nova Scotia restricts building in this area, and restricts purchasing property here to the locals.  I guess that means I can’t move there.  Tourism and fishing are the two primary industries here, so perhaps simply visiting is enough.

      Peggy’s Cove is named for Saint Margaret’s Bay, of which it’s a part of.  The point is dangerous for ships and the lighthouse does its job alerting ships to the dangers.  Unfortunately the tourists don’t always get the message.  Signs alert people to stay off the black rocks.  Black rocks mean water.  Many tourists to the region are swept off the rocks to their deaths.  Paying the ultimate price for a chance for the perfect picture.

      While its beautiful, it’s also a madhouse in the summer months when the cruise ships and other tourists flock to the area.  Frankly I’d rather visit in the offseason when you can have a little elbow room.

    • Monday Jump Start

      Monday Jump Start

      My week started at 6 AM with a quick walk around the garden to take stock of things, let Bodhi out and then a dive into writing before I shift gears towards work.  It was clear that the first cup of coffee hadn’t shaken the cobwebs off yet, so I indulged in some literary caffeine to get my jump started for the work week.  It started with grabbing a few random quotes from books I own:

      “As long as you live, keep learning how to live.” – Seneca

      “Misspending a man’s time is a kind of self-homicide.” – George Saville

      “A man is rich in the proportions of things he can let alone.” – Henry David Thoreau

      “The shortest and surest way to live with honor in this world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” – Socrates

      “The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

      “No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined.” – Henry Emerson Fosdick

      From there I started wondering about a couple of the people who were quoted.  I know all of the names but some carry more weight today than others.  Living in the Boston area it’s easy to know about Thoreau and Holmes, but Fosdick was someone I didn’t know as much about:

      Fosdick was a pastor from Buffalo who found fame as a leading voice in Modernism taking a stand against Fundamentalism (ie: taking the Bible at its literal word) with his sermons and books, in fighting racism and for co-authoring Alcoholics Anonymous.  He’s a guy that would look around today and have a few things to say about our society.  I’ll need to find his biography and read some of his sermons to really get a sense of the man.

      Then I moved over to Holmes.  Supreme Court Justice.  Acquaintance of the Concord elite.  Harvard guy…  Civil War veteran?  Interesting.  Another biography I need to read.

      We live our lives with history swirling all around us.  People who lived their lives with focus, dedication and discipline and changed our society in meaningful ways, and thus changed the way we live our own lives.  This ripple effect is profound, and yet we usually don’t know the source of the ripple.  I guess that’s one reason I blog; to learn about the antagonists that bounced around in this pond before me and changed the wave we’re surfing today.  Another reason is to build this writing muscle back up so it doesn’t atrophy.  Whether anyone ever reads it is beside the point, but I do appreciate you getting this far down the page.

      With that it’s time to focus on my job.  The work week has begun.  I’ll try to spend my time wisely this week, move in the right direction and to be honorable.  I don’t always get it right but hopefully I’ll do more good than harm this week.

    • Summer Solstice

      Summer Solstice

      The 4th of July is the big bang of summer, but late June is when the longest day of the year happens.  Summer solstice was June 21 and we’ve started the slow tilt away from the sun.  It’s hard to imagine because summer’s just begun, but it’s literally the beginning of the end.

      Late June is full of weddings and strawberry festivals and kids going to camp.  The tree pollen finally eases off and you can start breathing again.  The days are warm but not dog days of summer hot.  Lakes and the ocean are still warming up and remind you that you still aren’t that far past winter when you jump in.  Many of the perennial flowers in the garden are peaking.  Roses are bursting and bending over with the weight of their showy tops.  Annuals just planted weeks ago are hitting their stride.  Late June in New England is ripe with hope for the future.
      Other cultures start holiday right about now.  Americans work right through with maybe a week off wedged around a long weekend so you don’t have to take the extra day.  This is the time of year when you recognize the folly of this system.  Two days off on the weekend just don’t give you enough time for all that there is to do this time of year.  Beach or hiking?  Sailing or gardening?  Swim in the pool or go out for an ice cream?  Take a bike ride or have a drink with friends on the deck?  Its an embarrassment of riches.  These are days we’ll remember, but there’s so much to do that you can’t possibly fit it all in.
      Best to savor these moments.  Be happy with whatever you choose, shift down a gear or two and appreciate the long days.  Our lives are about living now.  We only have today, and the days aren’t getting any longer.

    • Feta Cheese Lady

      Feta Cheese Lady

      People tend to fall into one of two buckets.  Either you’re looking for what you have in common with someone or you’re looking for how you’re different from someone.  I’ve had a few conversations over the last month with people who I have a lot in common with who are completely different from me on which politician they support, religious belief, what they eat or don’t eat, Red Sox/Yankees, how they raise their children, smoking or nonsmoking, how they drive or a hundred other things.  And yet in each case I have a lot in common with them too.

      I had a meeting this week where I completely agreed with the guy I was meeting with on 95% of what we were talking about.  Where we had differences of opinion I chose to keep my mouth shut rather than work to educate him on why I was right and he was wrong.  Does that make me weak, or pragmatic?  In this conversation I was talking with a customer and I think it was pragmatic not to stand on principle and tell him why his opinion was off the mark.  But I’ve held my tongue in non-business situations as well.  I think there’s a place to take a stand and a time to figure out what you have in common and leave the rest behind.

      The art of compromise is finding a place in the middle where both sides win.  Extremists on both sides view this as weak, spineless or a hundred other things.  Most people will hold the line on something.  Most people view school shootings as horrific events that must stop.  Where we disagree is in how to stop them.  Most people agree in general that secure borders make sense.  Where we disagree is in the methodology for stopping people from crossing that border.

      Philosophical debate has been around for as long as humans could communicate with each other.  The art of philosophical debate was mastered by the ancient Greeks, most notably Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.  Read Plato’s Philebus and you see just how brilliant great debate can be when employing the Socratic Method of questions and answers to stimulate critical thinking and eventually agreement.  But the art of debate gets lost in the noise that social media and mass media create.  It’s far easier to follow one point of view than to find the nuance between the two that makes the most sense for both sides.  Clicks and followers demand loud voices.

      I was talking to the woman making my omelet in Rochester, New York this week.  Random person whom I know nothing about other than that she cooks eggs to order at a Doubletree Hotel.  I’ve had the same conversation with her twice, roughly seven months apart.  I asked for feta cheese on my omelet and she gushed about Stella feta cheese, saying it was the best anywhere, but really hard to find outside of Sysco or whatever other supplier Hilton contracts with.  She didn’t remember having this conversation with me last year, just that we both liked feta cheese on our omelets.  She may have strong opinions about separating children from their parents at the border, or about any number of hot button issues.  What I know for sure is that she’s a sweet older lady who isn’t very good at making omelets but tries hard.  And when she’s at work she doesn’t bring up divisive issues that detract from her primary mission.

      Social media offers plenty of opportunity to comment on divisive issues, and God knows people take advantage of that opportunity.  But somewhere along the way a few people forget why they’re Facebook friends with someone in the first place and prompt debate, discord, anger and name calling.  Some of the greatest people I know have opinions I completely disagree with.  And I’m okay with that as long as they respect my right to have a different opinion.  Facebook to me is a place to look at your family and friends living their lives and cheer them on as hit milestones or try their best.  It’s not the best format for debate on hot button issues, but when you aren’t hanging out around the same water cooler it’s one way to reach out and touch someone…  or say something annoying enough that they respond.

      Sometimes I just want to get my omelet and get on with my day.  Debating a short order cook about which feta cheese is better wouldn’t have advanced my life in any meaningful way.  Other times I want to complain about Dunkin Donuts just to get a reaction.  Debating DD vs. Starbucks is a means of engagement.  Poking friends to see who responds.  And I see that with political discussions on FB.  Sometimes you want to jump in, other times not.  But when intelligent debate devolves into argument neither party advances in any meaningful way.  We all have our line in the sand, but isn’t it more interesting to find common ground?  Ultimately its all just food for thought anyway.