“As is so with every story, once the end reveals itself the beginning and the middle can be understood anew.” —James Carroll (Constantine’s Sword, 2001) I’m reading James Carroll’s fascinating […]
LISTENING
We and the Land
Learning from Wampanoag lifeways
It was a Native voice I heard say, “Settlers practice their religion by going inside and talking to God. Native people go outside and listen to God.” I like that. […]
OP-ED
Free Speech and Student Protests
Was Leonard Cohen right about democracy coming to the U.S.A.?
Leonard Cohen’s 1992 song lyrics suggesting that democracy might be coming to the U.S.A. have been very much with me lately. Ever since I sat under the Payomet tent with […]
OP-ED
What Species of Creature Must We Be?
Kandiaronk, a 17th-century Native American statesman, speaks to us
Sitting in my cozy kitchen with the sun streaming in, I find myself torn up by the terrible state of our world and the unconscionable brutality of the wars raging […]
OP-ED
Healing the Wariness in Our Bones
Around a winter fire, a chance to warm our souls and consider peace
The rhododendrons make me laugh. After a long stretch of autumn, the sun came out, the temperature rose into the 60s for a minute, and they got all pink, as […]
OP-ED
Trying to Help and Getting It Wrong
What a painted pond turtle on Mill Road taught me
Driving down Mill Road in Eastham a few weeks ago, I spotted a painted pond turtle on the pavement. Being a human who has enjoyed enough success, by my modest […]
OP-ED
Giving Before We Take
A prescription: notice what the trees and terns seem to know
I found myself skipping out to the mailbox on a recent bright day. Skipping is not as easy as it used to be, but the drive is long, and I […]
LOCAL LEGENDS
Lights On at First Encounter
Celebrating nearly 50 years of music at a beloved Eastham coffee house that ‘rings with goodness’
EASTHAM — After two and a half years, the lights at the First Encounter Coffee House in Eastham’s Chapel in the Pines will finally be on again — at least […]
FIRST LIGHT
‘Water Please’: A Timeless Harmony
Reflections on the continuity of life here
When Mashpee Wampanoag flautist Ej Mills Brennan told me she would be bringing her boom box along with her flutes to play on Sunday morning at Chapel in the Pines, […]
OP-ED
Finding the Old Peace Sign
A time for Howard Zinn’s ‘guerrilla warfare with the establishment’
Somewhere in this old house where I live, full of many generations of treasures and trash, I still have the CNVA pin that I wore in high school (that’s Nauset […]
GRAMMAR WATCH
Shrink, Shrank, Shrunk
The value of learning and agreeing to the rules
Browsing a New York Times newsletter, I have to stop and re-read several times before confirming, via Google, my sense that the writer has gotten it wrong. The line in […]
OBITUARY
Peter Welker, 79, Brought His Trumpet to Cape Cod
Peter Welker died in Sun City, Ariz. on Jan. 12, 2022 from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and Covid. The West Coast jazz musician, composer, arranger, producer, and sideman, […]
WAR AND COVID
Thinking Clearly About Brain Fog
Person-to-person contact burns off the mist
A friend told me the other day that she doesn’t know if it’s post-Covid brain fog she’s suffering from, or if it’s undiagnosed Lyme disease or some other sinister condition […]
THIS WAS ENOUGH
The Summer and Winter Wetus of Our Predecessors
People of the First Light migrated with the seasons
We are moving deeply into November, the month now recognized as containing the National Day of Mourning for the Native Peoples of this land. Looking wistfully for optimism, or something […]
OP-ED
Jewelweed and Old Ways
On going back to the garden and other places of respite
A friend’s day off earlier this month provided an excuse for the two of us to wander Provincetown, stopping to eat at Bubala’s like we used to do, and watching […]
