Walden Cabin: Observations typed on an old Underwood

Saturday, December 22, 2001

Solstice - Time to think of warmer days.
The beach at Greenwich PEI is spectacular, and intolerant. Visitors who arrive expecting calm aquamarine seas steps from cool margaritas will be disappointed. This shore is an emissary bearing two essential truths: Life is hard, but it’s also beautiful.

People are interlopers here. Fishers bob offshore, and the summer sun teases out the occasional bather, but neither really belongs. This is a tough place. Its draw lies in its raw power. Greenwich is universal like the summer night sky, sparkling and alive.

Piping Plovers peep and hop along the churning shore. Gulls swoop and screech to scare wanderers from their nests in the dunes. Earth and sea wage war. The Gulf of St. Lawrence storms the beach and pounds red Island cliffs into sandy bluffs. The earth sweeps up its casualties into tidy mounds, and the minion dune-grasses keep score in delicate wind-swept etchings.

The secret to appreciating Greenwich is complete submission to it. It’s lying prone in summertime tidal pools as waves sweep over. It’s running barefoot screaming through October’s cold and crashing swells. Submission also means acknowledging that this place is before and after us, and that even essential truth can get lost in the human preoccupation with progress.

posted by Stuart Hickox | 2:43 PM

Friday, December 21, 2001

A very good friend of mine called today to wish me a Merry Christmas. Turns out he and his wife are headed to Florida for two weeks of R&R and he wanted to rub it in (plus he needed the money I owed him). We got to talking about holidays, and about how being off work provides the opportunity to catch up on some reading. At the beach in Florida my friend will be reading the manuals for his cell phone, graphics layout programme, and palm pilot. So much for the old spy novel. All these communications "convenience" devices come at a cost. If you wanna have Grandma on your voice recognition speed dial, ya just gotta figure out how.

I'm just jealous of my friend, not because he's headed to Florida, but because he has the courage to tackle the technology learning curve. It's always 12:00 in my TV room; my VCR tells me -- again and again and again. Have a safe trip, Alex!

posted by Stuart Hickox | 7:38 PM



	Saturday, December 22, 2001 Solstice - Time to think of warmer days. The beach at Greenwich PEI is spectacular, and intolerant. Visitors who arrive expecting calm aquamarine seas steps from cool margaritas will be disappointed. This shore is an emissary bearing two essential truths: Life is hard, but it’s also beautiful. People are interlopers here. Fishers bob offshore, and the summer sun teases out the occasional bather, but neither really belongs. This is a tough place. Its draw lies in its raw power. Greenwich is universal like the summer night sky, sparkling and alive. Piping Plovers peep and hop along the churning shore. Gulls swoop and screech to scare wanderers from their nests in the dunes. Earth and sea wage war. The Gulf of St. Lawrence storms the beach and pounds red Island cliffs into sandy bluffs. The earth sweeps up its casualties into tidy mounds, and the minion dune-grasses keep score in delicate wind-swept etchings. The secret to appreciating Greenwich is complete submission to it. It’s lying prone in summertime tidal pools as waves sweep over. It’s running barefoot screaming through October’s cold and crashing swells. Submission also means acknowledging that this place is before and after us, and that even essential truth can get lost in the human preoccupation with progress. posted by Stuart Hickox \| 2:43 PM Friday, December 21, 2001 A very good friend of mine called today to wish me a Merry Christmas. Turns out he and his wife are headed to Florida for two weeks of R&R and he wanted to rub it in (plus he needed the money I owed him). We got to talking about holidays, and about how being off work provides the opportunity to catch up on some reading. At the beach in Florida my friend will be reading the manuals for his cell phone, graphics layout programme, and palm pilot. So much for the old spy novel. All these communications "convenience" devices come at a cost. If you wanna have Grandma on your voice recognition speed dial, ya just gotta figure out how. I'm just jealous of my friend, not because he's headed to Florida, but because he has the courage to tackle the technology learning curve. It's always 12:00 in my TV room; my VCR tells me -- again and again and again. Have a safe trip, Alex! posted by Stuart Hickox \| 7:38 PM				(12.22.2001) Ruby Tuesday My sister's dog romps in the cold October surf on PEI's north shore. See more photos. (11.19.2001) Walden Cabin 1996 See the photos. (11.13.2001) Lowell and Sharon's first house in Calgary. See the photos. Updated - September 12, 2001 Head for the Hills of Prince Edward Island Walden Cabin >> "I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front the essential facts of life and to see if I could learn what they had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden; Or Life in the Woods (08.21) Walden Cabin is a publishing creation of Accolade Intermedia, an Ottawa-based communications company that specializes in content-rich Web products. www.accolade.ca >>
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