Inland Freshwater Seals, or the most beautiful swim of the year

I went up to Solon Maine to work with a filmmaker for an afternoon. When we got done working he asked me if I wanted something to eat, and I said, "You know what I really want? I want to go swimming somewhere beautiful." He said, "I'll go with you." Then his wife came home, and he said, "We're going swimming." And she said, "I was just on my way, I'll join you." And they took me to one of the most beautiful places I have ever gone swimming. A dammed up part of the Kennebec River, in Bingham Maine, and it looks like this:

When I was in the middle of the lake, I remembered that when I first lived in Central Maine, I lived here with someone from Oregon, and I convinced him that there are inland freshwater seals in the lakes here. He didn't believe me at first, but I worked it and I worked it all winter, and all Spring, and I told him that when we took the canoe out on the lake in summer, we would see them. After a while he skeptically believed me, and then he actually believed me. Until summer came, and of course it was all bullshit.

But if they WERE going to live somewhere, would you think they'd want to live here?????

Ocean Point

Sometimes when you are in one of the most beautiful spots on Earth ...

 you need a break and have to go to another one of the most beautiful spots on Earth.

Dayenu

It doesn't even matter what else happened during the day, because I slept deeply until 8:45 AM. Translate that into city people's sleep, and that's like sleeping til 2 in the afternoon. As we say at peysakh, dayenu. It would have been enough. But you know me, even though I started my day bright and fresh, I had three goals for the day. Outline my script, start writing the first act, go swimming.

I did accomplish the first two goals. I did not go swimming. I brought my swimsuit with me when I went for a trail run. I brought it with me after my run to a cove I can usually swim in, but I had hit the height of high tide, and there was no way to get down into the water. But I got to look at the water, and I got to see a little crab in the water, and I got to see the grasses that grow in the salt marsh that flows into the water, and I got to eat a lobstertini right next to the water. And then I came back home and wrote some more.

Visiting old friends in Maine

The fog.

The trail run.

The water lilies.

The cranberries. (not yet ripe)

The Joy of Cooking

Over the winter I made up a recipe for a vegan greens gratin that I just loved. I am not vegan (I was for about a year, back at a point when I was actually at my least healthy, not to say that vegans are unhealthy, but I was pretty much living on the chips part of fish and chips, without a thoughtful understanding of the fact that that oil had lots of non-vegan stuff fried in it) but I sort of think of myself as a vegan who eats animals and animal products, which is to say mostly veggies and fruits and nuts and tofu, but no stranger to the animal kingdom slipping in there to nourish me too. What a diversion. All I was trying to say is I invented a greens gratin recipe using a cashew based "ricotta" product at the food coop, that bakes up into a really nice creaminess, and now that the collards, tomatoes, basil, and garlic from my garden are all in full swing, I made one, and it is delicious, and from the moment I snapped the collard stems from the plant to the moment I took it out of the oven, I felt the joy of cooking.

Italian guy does yoga with his dog

The part I love the most about this is imagining the hours they have spent together leading up to making this video.

Itzhak Perlman is a mentsh

The meeting was on. And then it was off. And then it was on. And then it was .... on.

Josh is directing a PBS television program about Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, who have embarked on a gorgeous musical collaboration called Eternal Echoes. He needed to go out to the Hamptons to meet with Perlman at some point this summer. We had hoped it would be at a time I could go because he welcomed my brain at the meeting, and we both welcomed a day together out in Beachland.

We had a wonderful day. The drive out to Easthampton was lovely. We wore linen. We listened to radio. We put the windows down. We brainstormed about the program.

We pulled up to the Perlman's beautiful home, and were greeted warmly. I'm not going to go into detail, except to say that Toby Perlman (Itzhak's wife) was also there, and I adored her. She's super smart, creative, thoughtful, and serious—as is Itzhak–and as a foursome we had a wonderfully productive and fun meeting.

Then we got in the car and drove out to Montauk. We stopped for one of the worst fish sandwiches I've ever had in my life, sparking me to create an imaginary Food Network show called Where Not to Eat, and then we went on to the beach. I'd missed a night of sleep between Thursday and Friday, and so I was pretty beat. We parked easily,  walked over the dunes to a gorgeous sandy beach, put down the blanket, slathered in sunscreen, and I drifted off into a deep afternoon beach nap. Followed by a run on the beach and a tumble in the waves and another short nap. Followed by a walk through town and two stops for ice cream (rum raisin for Josh at John's Drive-In and honey lavender for me at Coffee Tawk. We felt like we were in pre-production/scouting for an actual vacation. Finding all the good spots we would actually go to if we were actually there. As if we weren't actually there. Which we sort of weren't, because the sun was getting low in the sky, and we had many a mile before we slept. But still, we wandered and we passed by those Hamptons parties I've heard about but not experienced, with gaggles of young people dancing to mediocre music on a beachside rooftop, and we came across the restaurant I would go to if I were there going to a restaurant. And I wasn't near my computer all day.

My therapist-before-last suggested to me that in addition to a short daily experience of joy, I also need a weekly day off, and maybe a monthly weekend, and maybe some longer vacations from time to time. I think she's probably right.