2020 Life Logs, Day 151: Kayaking, Silent Community Vigil, Visit with Friends
Date: Sunday, May 31, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 68, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was a lovely Sunday. The sun was shining, and it felt warm despite the wind from the north. My back issue is no better, but at least I am able to do half-mile walks with Shadow twice a day. I didn’t really get to the gardening today. Maybe tomorrow.
Late morning the Goldstones arrived and took off on a kayaking and fishing adventure down the Eel River to the Washburn Island. Washburn Island provides the barrier between the river and the Nantucket Sound. Each of the Goldpebbles was in their own kayak when they left the dock and Heather and Jed were in the two-man inflatable. Once they were off, I went back to the cottage to organize things for lunch when they returned and took time to play ball with Shadow and just sit in the sun and read the New York Times daily news on my phone. When the gang returned, we had a late lunch, sitting outside. The Goldstones then headed home so they could ride their bikes to the Village Green for the 4 pm Silent Community Vigil honoring the memory of George Floyd. I traveled separately, but met them on the Green for the 15-minute silent vigil.
It was a very comforting feeling to see so many Falmouth families with children, young people, and the older generation all wearing masks and using physical distancing during the vigil. The bells from the Congregational Church rang to begin and end the vigil, and during the 15-minute vigil a woman kept beat on a drum. After the vigil, the Goldstones headed down Main Street and I headed to Midge and Bill Frieswyk’s home for a gathering of our dining-in group. We were minus Olivia and Terry White as Olivia is on the Steering Committee of the No Place for Hate group that sponsored the vigil and they were meeting on Zoom afterwards to make plans for future actions. I arrived late for the gathering of friends, but it was great to visit outside, using proper physical distancing, with Bruce and Jane Woodin, Karen and Peter Baranowski, and the Midge and Bill Frieswyk. This group has become my inner circle of friends and this was the first time we have been together since February. We didn’t have dinner together as usual, but each brought our own drinks and appetizers to enjoy while visiting.
Right now I am watching what is happening across the country tonight in protest of the murder of George Floyd. But it is much more. The rage of years of racism are exploding all over the country and it is so hard to watch. It seems unbelievable that we are living through a pandemic like none we have seen since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, an economic crisis that rivals the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and civil unrest that rivals what we saw in 1968. Our democracy is being tested. May we be strong enough to come through this and be a better people, a better nation.
