Monhegan
08
Winter on Monhegan
Also- a great article by Tara Hire about Winter Artists on Monhegan can be read at:
http://www.boothbayregister.com/article/artists-capture-winter-monhegan/10551
05
Fish Beach Cook Out- Monday, August 6th!
Monhegan- Monday p.m.- Fish Beach Cook Out!
Monday August 6th from 6- 9:30 P.M.
Proceeds to Benefit the 2014 Quadricentennial of Captain John Smiths’s Landing on Monhegan
Cook out highlights:
Music by Terry Radigan
Food! Hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, fresh garden salad donated from the community garden project, potato chips, lemon bars and more.
Prices are $15 adults, $10 children (Lemonade and water are included in meal price)
Also, please visit www.monhegan2014.org
18
The Carina on Monhegan
by Tara Hire
Carina grocery and deli has been owned and operated by Tara Hire for the last 5 years. Following in the footsteps of the previous owner, Billy Payne, she has been offering a variety of local, organic, and gourmet foods, as well as basic staples for all of the people of Monhegan, including day trippers, summer residents, weekly sojourners and year-round residents.
07
A Birder’s View of Monhegan
Brian Willson of Rockport has recently returned from a birding trip to Monhegan. His blog http://www.birdreport.com/blog/ gives a great review of bird species found on the island.
See posts:
09
Same data – different spin
One way of thinking about “a commons” is that it is a resource shared by a group of individuals. The key word here is “sharing”. One can only share that which is his. In a strange sort way, the proof of having (owning, if you will) is in the giving of it to another. And in so doing, both the giver and the receiver are enriched.
Certainly it is possible to appreciate parts of Monhegan by yourself, but never all that is Monhegan. I am told that to love, one must “know” the beloved. But my capacity to know is limited and, if for no other reason, that is why I need others, especially those with different capacities from mine. My aptitudes do not include a capacity for poetry, but oh how I thrill at what the poet shares with me. We, the poet and I share Monhegan with each other by exercising our capacity to give it to another. The poet gives me her Monhegan poem, and I give her my photograph of Monhegan. Monhegan (the beloved) is what is being shared but from different perspectives.
One can argue that if one draws from the commons there is obligation to give back to the commons. OK, I guess, but I would prefer the realization that what I draw from the commons is enhanced geometrically in the sharing it with other Monheganites (those that identify with Monhegan). You know, something about feeding the 2000 with a couple of dead fish and a pair of stale loaves of bread. Look, don’t let my vocabulary tick you off. It is just how I see the multiplication of our Island. (Oh God, now he wants to bring 2000 to the Island? – well, in a way. Not directly and while that might not be desirable physically, how about using the Internet to share our Island with those that have eyes to see and ears to hear (oops there he goes again).
Hey guys, sharing Monhegan with Monheganites is a huge turn on. Some of you do so already with a post now and then. Good! but you can really get ignited by hosting (authoring) a page. Or share a page. How about a group of artists hosting a page, and develop a category on Monhegan art to share and solicit posts on art? Birding, anyone? There’s a group to work on the trails, right? Monhegan Essays? There are as many Monhegans as there are minds that envision it. There are over 400 visitors to this site everyday of the week! How do you experience the Island? Want to try sharing it? What do you want to share – keep it simple, and we’ll post it, modifying it only to provide consistency with the general site. Let’s experiment to see how vital this virtual community really is.
03
Editors Wanted
Wanted!
Editors
Setting
Early September – faculty meeting at Fordham University, Philosophy Department – purpose, teaching assignments. Envelopes are passed out… opened …. and an audible gasp from a new Jesuit instructor, “Quantum Theory! I don’t know anything about that…. hell, I’ve never even taught it!”
Quest
Do you have an interest or passion that is central to your Monhegan experience? Granted, the two editors presently contributing to Monhegan Commons, are hardly “new instructors”. Even so, a good way to learn is to teach (or is “preach”)? This is all a learning process for all of us (well, we’ll leave Jim out here). Interchange of passion is what it’s about. Eventually, we’ll get (most) of it right.
So, if you want a “page”, describe what you have in mind (we might help, but only to make it consistent with the rest of the site). We’ll post your idea and see the quality and quantity of responses the post draws and take it from there. No contracts, just flowing with the currents of this virtual community.
Submit to: Peter
09
Island Pond Has Frozen – Jim Stallings
ISLAND POND HAS FROZEN
Island pond has frozen
But not enough for skaters.
Weather says:
Three to five inches
Of white stuff,
Rain and sleet.
Hunker down, Hearth Huggers,
Bolster forth, Brave Hearts.
Yes, we are dreamers
of winter full,
Still shy the solstice
When time hangs still
Twixt shorter nights
And longer days to come–
And Lo! Our bonfires
Beckon the sun
From the dark ocean,
As our faces turn
East in faith.
Jim Stallings
06
Evolution of the Commons – A request for help
For many who consider themselves as part of Monhegan Commons, it is recognized that one of the major goals of this virtual commons is a search for ways to avoid the logical results described in Garrett Hardin’s essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons”. The dilemma posed by Hardin here, in over simplified terms, points out that it is rational and in the best interest of each individual sharing a commons to increase their use of the fixed resource, as in so doing, they reap the total profit from the increase while the cost of doing so is distributed amongst all the users of that commons. Or, in purely eco-political terms: capitalizing the gains and socializing the losses. There are so many current examples of this in our US Commons, negating the need to show that while good for a few in the short run, it is a disaster for most in both the short and long run. We are still left to deal with the privatizing of this continent’s indigenous people’s land, to say nothing of the short term gains from slavery.
Far better to look at the way Monhegan dealt with the outside world. For close to two hundred years the Island’s inhabitants welcomed artists to the Island. Edison’s ‘Monhegan Associates’ formalized the relationship between the winter and summer communities. ‘Daytrippers’ are a welcomed and even necessary part of the economic life of the Island as a whole. The Museum shares this Island’s culture with all that visit. Monhegan Artists’ Residency Corp. facilitates the evolution of emerging Maine artists. While these examples are obvious, more abound.
Events on the ground present challenges to which we must respond. Failure to do so is perhaps worst than responding inappropriately. Monhegan’s record is far better than most commons in dealing with the threats of the day. Even so we might do better in dealing with the world’s latest threat, technology. Wishing that it did not, or will not affect the Island is denialism in the extreme. If you can buy that, the next step would be to find ways of getting technology to work for/with you – not be overrun by it. Yet technology by itself is not the issue as much as content. Sure, the daily photos are refreshing, but really, they’re not much compared to a bunch of Zimmie’s post cards. MC’s photos are daily, however, and that is where we’ve gotten the advantage. What I feel is lacking as of right now is content: ideas, issues, discussions, debates
As you might guess, I have some ideas. These ideas are crude and in the need of massive input from the likes of you (it is a commons, not a fiefdom). I appeal for your thinking on just what is in the best (virtual) long term interest of Monhegan Commons, given the reality of technology. After kicking this idea about a bit we’ll try to construct a new ‘statement of purpose’, incorporating the best of what we would hope for.
Please, add your comments (knowing that transparency and accountability are the necessary price tags for this vehicle of free speech).
Blessings,
Peter
03
SUNDAY SERVICE — Alonzo Gibbs
SUNDAY SERVICE
The road
shaped to a slope
divides.
Monhegan House, Trailing Yew,
Mrs. Cundy’s Cottage-
windows over
walls of darkened roses.
We step from church
into our galaxy,
which here includes
the scattered lamps of town.
Our unspoiled night
can still declare God’s glory:
distant waves
sounding for all the world
like wind in spruce tops,
or wind in spruce tops,
sounding like the waves;
a smell of salt,
of drying fish-nets,
a sense of vast Atlantic reaches
under fixed or falling stars.
With flashlights lit,
we find our ways,
in all directions,
home.
Alonzo Gibbs
11
Laundress by Gayle LaVallee
LAUNDRESS
early June. The hotel’s tableclothes
curled in my basket, wet
ready for hanging
my joy among the strong white lines
pinned to the promises of season, green grass,
breeze just recently shorn of daffodils.
I am tall, romantic,
as I stretch them out, tight checks and polka dots,
in fresh sea
sun.
in August. Rows and rows and six lines deep
colored guest sheets
scallop
across the bowed-down ropes.
I pin and unpin,
pin again, take down,
reach and lift and gather in
sultry air, the sweating
sun-soaked
days.
October. The last white curtains sail
the flapping line
in crisp attention.
the sea wind turns
the empty pegs
tuning its goodbye song
to lace and valance and laundress
standing in romance
folding the season
down.
Gayle LaVallee