What can we do with perfectly good, no longer needed medical supplies? I thought this would be easy, but the rules make it impossible for organizations on the Island to accept them, and there doesn’t seem to be a place where patients and those who have leftover, unopened supplies can connect. This seems criminal to me.
The soaking rain was welcome, and this week I will be planting and transplanting. For most of my life, I helped my father with the garden, and it is hard to be up there without him, but cranking tunes on the job site radio makes it easier. I found a break in the fence, and nibbled pea plants. My son helped me repair the fence, and I have hope they will recover. I often repeat, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better,” from Samuel Beckett’s “Worstward Ho,” and think of my father saying, “Frost wrote in one of his notebooks that we move forward mainly by falling or almost falling. First we take one step, and then as we lean, we just catch ourselves if we can by moving the other leg forward.” We carry on.
There is a lot going on this weekend, and I wish I could be in two places at once.
Saturday, May 6, there are art exhibits and memorials.
This coming Saturday, May 6, at 1 pm at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury, there will be a joint celebration of life for my dearly beloved, remarkable, and much-missed friend, Susan Markwica, who died Feb. 8, 2023, and her partner, Frank Markwica, who died on Dec. 4, 2022. Family and friends are cordially invited.
Kathy Poehler’s seaweed art exhibit reception will be on Saturday, May 6, from 3 to 4 pm at the Chilmark library. Meet the artist, Kathy Poehler, and view her work, “Ebb & Flow: Seaweed Collages from the Intertidal Zone.”
Poehler says, “I like to think of seaweed as a medium, as well as beautiful specimens to be mounted on paper as they occur in nature. In my collages, or ‘paintings,’ I’ve merged an understanding of the limitations of my medium with the possibilities for self-expression. Creating images of nature from natural materials.
“I have always been most comfortable in and around the water, and this medium allows me to spend time on the shoreline collecting and observing the seaweed’s movement in its natural state before returning to the studio.”
Sunday, May 7, at the Unitarian Universalist church in Vineyard Haven, at 10 am, Holly Nadler will give a talk on her new book, “Hobo Diaries.” If you haven’t already read it, I encourage you to do so. It is a perfect laugh-and-cry-out-loud, delightful on the beach, on a plane or train, or over-the-weekend read. Please think of attending! It will give her great zest and joie de vivre to see us there!
Sunday, May 7, from 2 to 4 pm, a reception will take place at the West Tisbury library celebrating the drawings of Virginia Stone, Chilmark resident. They will be on display in the Community Room of the library for the month of May. These drawings reflect her impressions of the early days of COVID, up-Island. Stone recalls that because she could no longer meet in person with her Featherstone drawing group, she started recording the world around her as a daily drawing practice. She says, “I drew in Aquinnah, Chilmark, and West Tisbury, capturing scenes that reflected the reaction toward COVID.” Her observations brought home how many radical changes were occurring in our community, in order to keep people safe. In those uncertain early days, Stone says, “We wondered who would get it next and how badly. There was fear and hope and also humor in our situation.”
The show is free and open to the public during library hours, from 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Thursday, and 10 am to 5 pm Friday and Saturday.
Chilmark Community Church Tuesday Pizza Night at 6 pm. Come join in for good food, good company, and good games. Bananagrams, anyone? The last Tuesday Community Meal will be May 30, with Tom and Janet cooking.
Sunday, May 7, 9 am, the church service will feature special musical guests Sam Rothberg and Ella Quinlan.
If you have any Chilmark Town Column suggestions, email Claire Ganz, cganz@live.com.
