2022 Life Logs, Day 58: The World We Live In
Date: Sunday, February 27, 2022
Weather: Sunny, Windy from the NW; High 37, Low 18 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The world we live in here on Cape Cod right now is still an icy one. The two to three inch mantle of ice and frozen snow still covers most everything. The roads that were plowed are cleared and driveways that continued to be in use during the snow are now most cleared, walking just beside the road is in ice and snow. The high today was 37, but with the wind chill, it was colder. Not a lot of thawing happened. The temperature drops tonight and does not get above freezing tomorrow. So, ice and snow will be a part of our world for a few more days.
Sunday night in my world is usually filled with Masterpiece Theater productions from the BBC. Starting on the last Sunday of 2021 and continuing until last Sunday night, I watched their creative reinvention of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. The book was published 150 years ago in 1872, but the story is ageless. In the book, which was not based on a true story, Phileas Fogg, a most proper Englishman, takes a wager to travel all around the world in just 80 days. He is accompanied by his sidekick Passepartout and pursued by a detective named Mr. Fix. In the Masterpiece Theater series, Phileas Fogg is accompanied by his newly acquired valet, also named Passepartout, and a determined young woman journalist named Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue. It is a thrilling adventure, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Tonight, presented a behind the scenes view of the series as a public television fundraiser, but I even enjoyed that. I am going to miss Phileas Fogg, Passepartout, and Ms. Fix. Thank you, Jules Verne, for your adventure novel realizing the dream of circumnavigating the known world in less than three months. And to the young American journalist known as Nellie Bly, whose real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran, who took on the challenge of traveling around the world even faster than Verne’s Phileas Fogg. In 1889, she circumnavigated in only 72 days. Quite an accomplishment for a young woman in the Victorian Age.
While on the topic of circumnavigating the earth, I will mention that editing The Voyage of Windbird continues to be the focus of my world. All I seem to do these days is editing, puzzling, reading, and walking with Shadow. I took time late this afternoon to drive to Heather and Jed’s to welcome them home. The weather last week was not perfect for skiing and snowboarding as it was too warm on two of the days, but they managed to have a good time despite the weather challenge. I was surprised that it was 60 degrees in Maine on one of the days. I certainly don’t see them everyday when they are home, but I sure miss them when they are gone. And I swear Sam grew 3 inches in the one week!
Now to the world we live in currently. I continue to be inspired by the resolve of the Ukrainian people and their young leader. “In a world full of sham tough guys, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has turned out to be the real deal.” In just a few days, Zelenskyy has managed to capture the respect of the entire world. I do fear for his life, but I am in awe of what appears to be his fearless resolve to do whatever is necessary to save his country. I dug through old photographs today, looking for the pictures of Mark’s trips to Kiev in 2004 and the visit of the young Kiev journalists to New Hampshire Public Radio in that same year in December.
Mark was in Kiev in August of 2004 and then in the middle of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the young journalists flew to New Hampshire to learn more about starting a public radio station in Kiev. Just like Zelenskyy, they were unstoppable. They were determined to succeed. While they were visiting, we invited them to come to Boston and visit us aboard Windbird at Shipyard Quarters.
We toured the USS Constitution and then walked into Boston. A gift from New Hampshire Public Radio was presented to them at lunch. It was a picture of the Rosie the Riveter showing her muscle with the World War II slogan, “We Can Do It.”
I’m hoping with all my heart the Ukrainian people can somehow do it this time.
One last note. As I looked back through the photos, I used the spelling Kiev which was pronounced key-ev. In the past week, I have only heard the name of the capital city pronounced as keev and spelled Kyiv. Today I looked up why there has been the change. Kyiv (keev) is derived the from Ukrainian language while Kiev(key-ev) is from the Russian language. The change came about as part of a movement to better inform the international community about the correct forms of Ukrainian placenames.
