7-28-2024

For 18 years I wrote a monthly commentary for the Chicago Shimpo, a Japanese-American newspaper. It was first published in 1945 after WWII ended. It chronicles the Japanese community lives in the Chicago region. At first it was published twice weekly, then monthly, then not at all except for a truncated online version . . . so much for history.

 

The past and present editions are stored and cataloged in the collection of a university I can never remember the name. So, in a sense, my commentaries will live on. In case you are interested, they are posted at deanraf.blogspot.com under the name of Thoughts On Japanese Culture.

 

Except for the first commentary, the titles were composed of one word. That word was the inspiration for the next 500 to 1000 words that followed. At times, with the deadline looming, I would search the recesses of my mind for a word, that word. I always found it. In the many years I wrote for the paper I only missed one deadline and that was because of poor planning and not a lack of inspiration. Unbeknownst to me I had trained my mind to offer up a word monthly. 

 

Now back to cruising because I am not sure the above has much to do the with what follows. Today Carrie Rose is moored at Warren Island State Park. We often come here. It is one of the islands in the Islesboro Island group that delineate West and East Penobscot Bay. It is spitting distance north of 700 Acre Island which was found to have Maine’s oldest rock.

 

We can take the dinghy to the park’s dock and hike the 2 mile long circumferential Island trail. Campers show up to the park in all kinds of conveyances: in working lobster boats and large yachts, in tiny skiffs, kayaks and canoes, and a small ferry that arrives on demand. The park is on West Penobscot Bay between Camden and Belfast. The anchorage is often graced by one of the famous vacationer schooners that come to take their paying passenger for a lobster feast on land.

 

It is a protected harbor in any wind other than NW. A fact that we learned at our peril one sleepless night while hanging on a mooring in a NW storm. Generally, it is a place to hang out, put on bug spray and walk around the island. There is usually the antics of an eagle and an osprey to keep us entertained as we gently float around and around the mooring.

 

This year both the eagle and the osprey have been absent other than hearing their calls. There also has not been the teaming schools of bait fish swimming and jumping around the boat, and thus, no seals, porpoises and cormorants hunting them. Warren has been a quiet place this year, perfect for searching for that one word of inspiration.