For the loneliness and unfocused anxiety, the smug indifference to the environment, the dreary boredom of life in the technological society, the sovereign cure is a well-organized New England storm.

Well, the first two weeks of 2015 have already brought a jarring handful of ominous tidings for our near future here.

Folks from all over the world came to see Yefim Shubentsov to end their addictions, so four years ago I made my appointment.

In 1965 I had lived for 21 years in Crestwood, N.Y., and 18 years on Martha’s Vineyard. I knew very little about the rest of the world.

Our landmarks gone. Rough violent winter gouged the golden sandhills collapsed the grassy lookouts from the top, the wooden benches