DAY: HOLDING - "And crowned thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea."
It's still all about unity.
Our summer of perpetual travel took us to the coast of Maine this weekend for gatherings of friends and family. We celebrated nature's beauty (4,500 miles of rock-studded coast,) nature's bounty (wild blueberries for the picking and lobsters selling for less than $4 a pound) and the binding, smile-inducing and magnetic power of love.
In Cape Elizabeth Sunday afternoon at the Portland Head lighthouse, we encountered the mind of native-son poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A bronze plaque commemorated his poem The Lighthouse inspired by this light. An excerpt on the plaque: "Sail on: Sail on ye stately ships; and with your floating bridges the oceans span; Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse; Be yours to bring man near to man."
Several fine interpretive panels on a rise above the ocean at Fort Williams Park, where the lighthouse warns with light and horn, taught us about this part of the coast. Edward Hopper painted here. I've included a photo of a Hopper painting of another lighthouse near here. Good clear light in this cool, dry air sharpens the artist's eye and brush.
Portland International Jetport now. Pittsburgh International and Pittburgh's AmTrak Station next - about midnight - and then an 0530 train to Cumberland Monday before saddling up for the final leg of the journey.
"Head 'em up, get 'em up, get 'em goin', rawhide!"
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Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. Like his Barefootin' Facebook page to get notified of blog updates.
