Thinking Forward

On Sunday the Vineyard Conservation Society held the last of its winter walk series at Pilot Hill Farm on Lambert’s Cove. The theme of the walks this year was education around the local impacts of global climate change. For the past few months those attending the walks have trod on ground already affected by the changes due to the warming of the planet.

Limbo Living

Lent, for those who observe, is traditionally a period of waiting. But one does not need to be a churchgoer to feel a sense of being caught in a holding pattern at this time of year.

Sifting Through the Muck

Following the rules can start to seem like a fool’s game when many in society begin to tout that regulations — any inconvenient regulations — are an affront to freedom and an obstacle to prosperity. Nevermind that a free market depends on a well-regulated system. This is true whether dealing with home loan approvals, oil rig safety procedures or scrutinizing investment results (Madoff, anyone?). The penalties for recklessness must be severe for the market to make sense.

Catching Up on Daylight Saving

Daylight Saving Time is upon us again. On Sunday, March 13, most of the United States will spring forward and enjoy an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day. Hawaii and most of Arizona abstain; the Navajo Nation residing in the state observes the tradition.

Seismic Shifts, Trustees Too Silent

The announcement last week by The Trustees of Reservations of major staffing and organizational changes on the Island operation is unsettling less for what it said than for what it did not say. Ordinarily personnel changes may be taken as matters of ordinary business — a new manager is named here, a position is eliminated there. But the changes announced by the Trustees in a garden-variety press release that arrived by electronic mail are anything but ordinary.

Quiet Island

The Island in winter is often a calm affair. But during this first week of March it has downshifted to a gear slower than walking, slower even than sitting on a stump and breathing in the landscape. It is as if the Island has been emptied of the last remnant of noise and rambunctiousness left.

It is winter break here on the Island. The schools are all closed.