2023 Life Logs, Day 223: A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World
Date: Thursday, August 10, 2023
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Light Rain Late Day: High 76, Low 65 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
It was another day without Ollie and Jonah. Ollie’s cold is no better, so again Heather said the boys would be fine and that I should avoid contact. I did take lunch to Heather and the boys and busied myself here with designing and buying a few plants for a new flower and herb garden. Then at 5:15 pm, Christina Brodie picked me up and we went to a wine and cheese reception at Highfield Hall followed by an author talk. The speaker was David Gessner. He is a NYT best selling author, and his latest book is A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water by David Gessner. The Highfield piece advertising the event said: “In A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World, Gessner takes readers on an eye-opening tour of climate hotspots from the Gulf of Mexico to the burning American West to New York City to the fragile Outer Banks, where homes are being swallowed by the seas. He does so with his usual sense of humor, compassion, and a willingness to talk to anyone, providing an informative and sobering yet convivial guide for the age of fire, heat, wind, and water. Gesner approaches scientists and thinkers with a father’s question: What will the world be like in 2064, when his daughter Hadley is his age now? What is the future of weather? The future of heat, storms, and fire?” Gessner doesn’t like to use the word ‘hopeful’ when talking about climate devastation and the future.. He prefers to use the word ‘possibilities’. This prompted a very thoughtful discussion.
