Forward to Summer

I love the summer.  As I get older, winter wears on me.  And while spring breaks the cycle of frigid days, it can be wet and chilly.  Fall is actually my favorite season, particularly in Virginia where the changing of the season explodes into a bouquet of colors.  But summer is just flat fun.  Here’s what’s on our plate.

Anniversary

Shelley and I will celebrate our 44th year of marriage tomorrow.  Technically that’s “late spring” but we think of this time as summer. When we were married in Bridgewater, Virginia in 1980, we had no idea the adventures we would experience in the Army in both war and peace.  There were stressful times.  Marriage is not all roses.  But there was abundant joy with the arrival of our children:  Amy, John, and Paul.  More fun yet shows up when the kids get married, and grandchildren arrive on the scene.  Grandchildren are the “dessert of life.” Especially during summer when they are with us at the river and are engaged in swimming, catching fish, and running here and there.  They run everywhere.  Such energy I have not seen in years.  And all of this is a superb blessing that has its roots in bringing us together 44 years ago. For that we thank God.  I am grateful Shelley has had the strength to put up with me all these years.

Family Visits

Summer brings the family together, particularly when school is out.  And we strive to have everyone gather at the river so we can take the annual photograph of the grandkids we use as our Christmas card.  And when the “grands,” as we call them, are all together, cousinship emerges.  They really enjoy being together and it can be hectic.  But watching them grow, indeed, learn from each other, is a wonderful and remarkable sight. 

Vacations

This year we will also travel to Rosemary Beach in the Florida panhandle with some of our kids and grandkids. This is a delightful vacation spot along the Gulf of Mexico where the water is both clear and warm.  We stay in a cottage there, do our own cooking, and rotate between trips to the beach, the enormous community pool complex, nearby shops, and occasional naps.  Grandchildren are wonderful.  But they sometime provoke the need for a nap.  And of course, what would a vacation be without a good book to read?  I will be delving into General David Petraeus’s new book Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine.  Since I am now authoring a new book on the future of war, his strikes me as an important one to read.  So, I will try to focus some on that work as I submit to the requests to go to the pool, the beach, or the doughnut shop in the local village.  I really need to resist the latter.

Oystering

Some years ago, I started “oyster gardening” off of our pier at the river.  I was motivated to do this while I was serving on the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-state arrangement between Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to clean up the Bay.  Oysters are essential to that work.  They are able to purify the Chesapeake Bay as they filter the water for their food. An adult oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day!   That’s huge.  The sediment and nitrogen that enters the bay via runoff from rural land and urban streets pollute the bay and harm aquatic life. If we continue to see a return of the oyster population in the bay, collectively they could again filter a volume of water equal to that contained in the bay (about 19 trillion gallons) in a week! Given the reduced number of oysters in the bay today, that would take over a year. Unfortunately, three years ago, a bad storm swept my oyster cages away.  But last year I found a new system, called a roughrider cage that better handles the turbulent water.  And I have about 150 oysters that will be ready next year!  I plan to put 500 more overboard this year.  So, this summer I’m back in business with new oyster cages cleaning the Bay and getting ready for future roasts!

Writing

Yet my favorite preoccupation is writing, and summer is a fun time to write.  Writing is my outlet.  My way of connecting.  My way of reaching back in my experience to share with others a way forward.  That’s what drives me.  The idea that we always go forward best by going back first.  The transcendent lessons of life are valuable to sustain life.  That’s true in writing about so many things that concern me: the need for strong families, the necessities of good governance, and learning from history. 

So, forward into summer I go!