Labor Day
Last Thursday night Ezra kindly joined me for the Hail Social/Rainer Maria show at the Middle East. I am loving Hail Social–their whole album is quite infectious, and the only disappointment at the show was the crowd. The place was a bit empty. I guess a lot of folks still don’t know about Hail Social. Part of me wishes I’d taken my camera, because it seemed like I would have been able to take loads of pictures. Oh well–maybe I’ll take my camera for Of Montreal on Sunday. We did have Ezra’s camera and managed to get a few pictures–mostly of Rainer Maria. They were decent. I’m not a huge fan, but it was an OK show.
Friday night my parents arrived for a weekend visit. It’s always nice when they come up here to visit–it tends to feel more relaxed than other visits for some reason. On Saturday we grilled in the afternoon and attempted to go to the night’s baseball game. That didn’t quite work out, but I was able to get a promise that they’ll plan ahead to go to a game with us next year. Sunday we drove up to Ogunquit. I thought we should check it out since it’s just one exit past Kittery and we’d never really been there. We parked in Perkins Cove (we had the magic touch with parking spaces all day) and walked around, taking everything in. It’s very cute, and after a couple of downpours on the highway on the way up, it turned out to be a gorgeous day.
We drove back along Route 1 past the little houses and many antique shops and stopped for some “Back to School” shopping at the outlets. Then (of course) we took the folks to the Portsmouth Brewery for dinner. I think they enjoyed the day. I know they really like Maine, so I wanted to get up there, and I wanted to go somewhere new (Ogunquit). They left after breakfast this morning.
It’s another gorgeous day. I was going to do some work (yeah, I know, despite it being Labor Day), but then I had to get outside, so I went for a jog. I’ll probably still do a little work anyway–but just a little.
Maybe you’ve noticed that I haven’t written much about all of the terrible things that have been happening in the world lately. It’s not that I don’t know or that I don’t care. I do care–it’s always there, but I can’t dwell on it all the time. I guess I care too much.
Not quite the same… but essentially on target, is this poem by Anne Sexton that I love. Here’s a bit of it:
(Different…)
“Is life something you play?
And all the time wanting to get rid of it?
And further, everyone yelling at you
to shut up. And no wonder!
People don’t like to be told
that you’re sick
and then be forced
to watch
you
come
down with the hammer.”
(But coming to the same…)
“Today life opened inside me like an egg
and there inside
after considerable digging
I found the answer.
What a bargain!
There was the sun,
her yolk moving feverishly,
tumbling her prize –
and you realize she does this daily!
I’d known she was a purifier
but I hadn’t thought
she was solid,
hadn’t known she was an answer.
[...]
I say Live, Live because of the sun,
the dream, the excitable gift.”
