2026 Life Logs, Day 179: This Beautiful Country of Ours
Date: Sunday, June 28, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 79, Low 60 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
I have lived in 12 of the 50 states in this country, traveled by car, truck, or van from coast to coast 3 times, hitchhiked from Oregon to San Francisco, down through Big Sur to Los Angeles and back east to Illinois. Mark and I drove from Indiana to Alaska and traveled from the Kenai Peninsula to Fairbanks and then back down to the state of Washington. I have traveled by bus from Illinois to Idaho and Mark and I traveled by bus from Boston to Amarillo, Texas. Plus, Mark and I drove most of Route 66, and we sailed the east coast from Maine to the Keys. I have not seen all of this country (I have not been to Hawaii.), but I have been blessed to see enough to truly appreciate its beauty and its diversity. I love this country. And I say this because …
This morning my friend Midge texted a group of us to say that CBS Sunday Morning had a wonderful 250th tribute on the air right then. I used to record that program and watch it when there was a really good episode. But I am currently boycotting CBS for obvious reasons. Still, I was curious enough to find a way to watch the episode tonight. It was definitely worth watching—the diversity of our food, our music, our national parks–until the very end when author and historian Douglas Brinkley ended the program with a message to give us hope when our democracy is in such peril. But he stated that this country has been through worse before and we have come out of it. I disagree with him on that point. Certainly, the Civil War was horrific, and our democracy has been challenged many times and we have prevailed. But what Brinkley did not acknowledge is that never before in our history has our democratic form of government been challenged from within by the elected President of our country, along with all of the power that office wields. Hope is essential, but hope is not a strategy in this case. My wish for the upcoming 250th anniversary of this country is that the people will come together and stand united to do whatever is necessary to uphold our democracy of, by, and for the people. Historians who offer hope and don’t recognize the gravity of our current situation are not helpful. In my opinion, people like Brinkley are in denial. Every single one of us has to wake-up and work hard, work like we have never worked before, to take back our country.
There. I got that off my chest. But while I am on the topic of the beauty of this country, I proudly report that my daughter spent her day traveling 130 miles north from the Toolik Field Station to Deadhorse, Alaska, on Prudhoe Bay. This is as far north as you can go on land in the United States. I sure hope she took lots of photos. And I can’t wait until she gets home on Thursday and can share the stories of her far north adventure.
What I did today had nothing to do with saving our democracy or traveling to the ends of the earth. I visited my sister and took her on a little explore outside of her new ‘home’. My friend Midge, who recommended we all watch CBS Sunday Morning, lives in a senior retirement community across the street from my sister’s memory care facility. After lunch Patsy asked to go for a ride, so I strapped her in her wheelchair, texted Midge, and walked Patsy out of the building (with permission, of course), across the road, and through the Southport neighborhood to Midge’s condo. Midge brought out cold drinks and we sat together, Patsy in her wheelchair and Midge and I sitting on the steps of her front porch. Patsy had a conversation with Midge about the flowers on her front porch. It was warm and sunny and beautiful, and this was a wonderful way to spend time with my sister this afternoon. Since she seems interested in flowers, I will have to plan some car trips to take her to various gardens or even to a nursery. But first I have to get medical help to figure out why all of a sudden she is not walking with her walker. She is like dead weight when I try to transfer her from her wheelchair to standing with her walker. Until this is better, getting her in and out of a car would be very difficult. I would need a second person. So, we will walk in the neighborhood for now and hope that being wheelchair bound is temporary. But it is encouraging that she is interested in getting out and exploring.
