Heard on Main Street: Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. We need them to survive.
Join the Vineyard Conservation Society and Befriend a Beach: This month, go to Long Point (with the Trustees) on Saturday, Dec. 16, and clean up the beach from 2 to 4 pm. A volunteer will be there with bags and gloves, and will handle disposal of the trash collected. If you’d rather go another day, you can get a VCS trash sticker from your library to take to the transfer station.
I’m really not sure if the Steamship Authority making preparations to launch its new website is good news or not, especially just before the holidays.
The new CLAMS library program to access books is limited to cell phone or iPad. But you can connect on your computer at vineyard-haven.clamsnet.org.
This is very seasonal: The Vineyard Haven Library Spice Club meets at 6 pm on Tuesday, Dec. 19. They meet online one Tuesday a month. Registration comes with a sample pack of the spice of the month, and a little history about it. You prepare a recipe, and then come and discuss your opinions, experiences, and love or not. This month: crystallized ginger. Register with the library.
Unless you delight in just reading emails — boring, repetitive, and catty, with a few scattered brief texts — I recommend you avoid the new book “The Christmas Appeal” by Janice Hallett.
Unfortunately, I am discovering that my traditional delight in decorating for Christmas is offering problems as I age and my life is changing, bit by bit. I’m no longer able to put up some of the pieces I’ve cherished. Finally I am recognizing that there are just some things I find no longer as precious to me. And I finally understand where many of the lovely pieces that I’ve found at the thrift shop over the years have come from.
As it gets colder, you should consider a power energy assessment. I suggest you just call 800-797-6699, or visit capelightcompact.org. I really used about 40 percent less electricity for each month after I had it done, with further insulation added and other minor improvements.
The Vineyard Haven Tennis Foundation invites Islanders to play on the Reade courts at the end of Boxberry Avenue, off Franklin Street, in Tisbury, free of charge. Meet there from 10 to noon on Sunday, Dec. 17. Start with traditional warm-up, then play a set. Delays or cancellations will be posted on the VHPL website.
Parents and children will be delighted that our library offers Kids’ Movies and Crafts from 3 to 5 pm, from Tuesday, Dec. 26, through Friday, Dec. 29.
The Martha’s Vineyard Museum offers an exhibit called “Home” — the places we dwell, our communities, and the places we cherish. Explore the idea of home through the eyes of artists, both past and present. On view through Jan. 7. Also “They Were Heard: The Unique Voice of the Martha’s Vineyard Deaf Community.” From 1694 to 1952, the Vineyard — and specifically the towns of Chilmark and West Tisbury — had an unusually large population of people with hereditary deafness. As a result, Vineyarders learned a local dialect of sign language, which was used by hearing and deaf people alike. Learn about an extraordinary chapter of Island history. On view through Feb. 18.
Beginning in January, Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of Literature at Swarthmore College, will present a nine-part seminar on Zoom, “Known and Unknown Worlds: Fictions of the 21st Century,” studying six of the most resonant novels published in the first two decades of our new century. Programs will be online via Zoom twice monthly, from 6 to 7:30 pm, beginning Thursday, Jan. 18 (subsequent sessions will be on Wednesday evenings). Before the first class in January, registered participants will receive Zoom information. A limited number of the books will be available at the library.
Big bunches of birthday balloon wishes go out Saturday to Laura Beebe. Sunday belongs to Lyrae Littlefield and Kate Malkie. Happy birthday to Mattsen and Sutton Koster next Wednesday.
Heard on Main Street: Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.
If you have any Tisbury Town Column suggestions, email Kay Mayhew, tashmoorock@gmail.com.
