Walking. With Luminous Detritus.

~ Live & Learn

73° F, and it’s 4:15 am. I’ve pulled into the Cove Island Park. 1,159 consecutive (almost) days on this morning walk. Like in a row. That’s right, it’s not a typo. And yes, it’s getting earlier and earlier, despite the sun rising later and later. Look at the Blog Mast. He can’t sleep.

It’s overcast. It’s humid. It’s hot, and this is 4:30 a.m.

I walk.

No, I’m not here this morning to bitch about the weather.

Or my lack of sleep. (A continuing & Growing problem.)

Or the trash that’s left behind all over the park by the growing number of visitors during the summer – SHAME ON YOU! You wouldn’t sh*t in your own house would you? Why here?

Oh no, I’m not going to go on that tirade again. No Sir. It absolutely did not cross my mind (again) to take an iron bar across the hand of the knuckles of the polluter(s). No, I did not think or say that.

Nope, it’s not about trash today, consciously or unconsciously left behind corrupting this walk, not that I needed all that much impetus.

And it did cross my mind, today being Sunday, maybe one should focus on all the good. And I did think deeply about that. On this quiet little walk in my little heaven… I walk a few hundred yards ruminating on that…hmmmm…F*ck that!

So, as you know, I’ve been on this daybreak walk at Cove Island Park Walk for over a 1000 days, like consecutively, like almost in a row.

And almost everyday, I would see this small beautiful stand of trees in the photo above. I couldn’t tell you what kind of trees. I’ll let Sawsan humiliate me on my ignorance of tree types, and which way the Earth turns, and that kind of sh*t — I could care less.

I just know that this is a beautiful stand of trees, and they front the Long Island Sound. And in all kinds of weather and light, it has been a magnificent view.

I’ve taken 100’s of shots of that stand of trees, with the beautiful waters shimmering behind them.

All good, right?

Well, no, not close to being right. All wrong.

My photo up top was taken a month ago. And the shot below, same spot, was taken this morning.

Notice anything different?

I chose to make this morning’s shot a sepia tone, aligning with my nostalgia for what was.

All those beautiful mornings where I stood in that same spot to take shot of this beautiful stand of trees that stand majestically in front of Long Island Sound.

Yep, Man choose to build another kayak stand, directly in front of the trees. Because of course, we need another kayak stand in addition to the ~10 kayak stands that already exist to the left of this new one.

What’s next? Building a bunch of huts along the shoreline, and rent them out for a few bucks?

I understand this act is not climate change. Or the trashing of our seas with zillions of pounds of plastic and garbage. Or the devastation of the Rain Forests. Or the poaching of the Elephant tusks.

I turn away from my little stand of trees and the kayak stands and walk back to the car, disgusted. On my walk back, there’s soiled baby diapers, discarded Taco Bell wrappers, a pair of black socks, a gob of chewing gum.

I start the car, and look out at the kayak stands, when passages from Kate Zambreno’s new book The Light Room rise up:

“These fragments were less about a finished work and more about the private ritual, a longing to contemplate beauty and joy amid individual and collective crisis, including the loss felt by ecological spoilage and changes in the landscape. […] I feel an overwhelming sensation of life’s fragility and eternity. We are alive, I think, for just a moment of all of this.“

God Help Us.

Because we certainly can’t help ourselves.

More photos from this morning’s walk here.

51 thoughts on “Walking. With Luminous Detritus.”

  2. And why am I featured on this list of universal irritants?

    – lack of sleep
    – humidity
    – trash
    – heat
    – pollution
    – iron bar across the hand of the knuckles of the polluter(s)
    – climate change. Or the trashing of our seas with zillions of pounds of plastic and garbage. Or the devastation of the Rain Forests. Or the poaching of the Elephant tusks.
    – soiled baby diapers, discarded Taco Bell wrappers, a pair of black socks, a gob of chewing gum
    – sawsan

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    2. Thx for taking the hit, Sawsan. Given our pal’s mood, I was just relieved that I didn’t get tapped for recently using some word that he had to look up…😂😂

      Seriously, though pal, I get it. I am watching once beautiful open vistas, stands of old oak, pasture land, lovely river beds and more flattened under the blade of bulldozers as developers here recommit themselves anew to paving every square inch of the state. I swing between the poles of disgust and despair. Grateful for your discerning eye and your willingness to catalogue these precious days and share your thoughts. Take a deep breath, give Wally a squeeze, hug Susan, take a drooly afternoon nap, give yourself a break.

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      2. Thanks Lori. I agree (except for the coddling of Sawsan). Your thoughts remind me of:

        “Look around you: I mean it. Pause, for a moment and look around the room that you are in… We have an obligation to make things beautiful. Not to leave the world uglier than we found it, not to empty the oceans, not to leave our problems for the next generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and not leave our children with a world we’ve shortsightedly messed up, shortchanged, and crippled.”

        — Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming. The Guardian · by Neil Gaiman · October 15, 2013 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming

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    3. Hi Sawsan 🙂 My reaction to DK’s writing: “I’ll let Sawsan humiliate me on my ignorance of tree types, and which way the Earth turns” as a nice little backhanded compliment! I mean…. We all know that you are totally AWESOME!! (Am I sucking up?… Probably a bit… But you absolutely deserve the praise!)

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  5. Oh my, are these kayak-stand’d trees the ones I referred to as “The Sisters”? Either way, what on earth stopped you from dissembling the kayak stand? Rope in some clandestine help and move that out of the photo zone. Occupy! (Sorta)

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  6. Well, I am certainly late to the party – and I’m kinda grateful…Grateful for Sawsan and Susan and Lori and Ray and anyone else I may have missed in these exchanges. It’s because we get it, we fret and agonize, rue the increasing detritus – figuratively and literally – and rage at the indifferent. We’re angry and frustrated and sad with you, which is why it’s awesome that at the end of the day, there was laughter.

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  7. It’s happening all around us, everywhere. Change is always hard to take, but why is it usually for the worse? And if you complain about it, you’re hit with, “Oh, you’re so negative.” I’m learning to keep my mouth shut (working on it anyway) and run for cover. Maybe that’s why I like taking photos, so I have something nice to look at in my dark corner hideout and I can reminisce about the good ole days. (Sure sign of getting old).

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  8. Ummm….You point out the blog mast… it’s gone… There is no “I can’t sleep”…
    Just thought you’d like to know. Add it to your list of irritants today.
    People are such pigs, aren’t they? I don’t understand it.

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    1. Wow. Do you miss anything? I’ve had major blog theme issues. Was told mine was retired so I had to scramble to go to Plan B. Correction made. This is still work in progress.

      Yes, people are pigs!

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      1. I would have noticed anyway (coz, I can’t help it…) but on top of that you made mention of it so, I went back up coz I felt like there was missing something!
        What do you mean you were told yours was retired! Effing WP…

        They are. No respect.

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  9. Huh! Just earlier today I ran across this quote I’d saved by an artist, Robert Genn : “We can ask no greater joy than to pass gently through this place that has been given to us, and make something out of it. Not necessarily to fully understand it, for that might be an impossible task, but to honor it in our own way”. I try to honor this place I’m in through photographing the beautiful, as you’ve done….and trying ever so hard to ignore the damage done by others who cannot see the beauty.

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  11. “Why is it usually for the worse?”
    I vote for what I call: The fundamental flaw in the capitalist system: If there’s no profit in it, it doesn’t get done. (I’m referring to “doing the right thing for the good of our planet and ourselves“.)
    And I guess there is a possible corollary to this: “If there is profit in it, greed, overules doing the right thing“.

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  13. Steve, thank you for re-posting your comment of Month that I lost in my blog blow-up. I’m reposting it here for everyone else (and me) to see:
    http://srevestories.blogspot.com/2023/07/gangbangers.html

    “Be thankful you don’t have any Muscovy ducks. Or don’t seem to. There are no pics you’ve posted of Muscovy’s, and probably for good reason. It is one ugly duck. Now I don’t have anything against one ugly duck, I’m a kind person and not that good looking myself. On a duck by duck basis, I’m sure they are fine animals and worthy of love, or affection even. But as a group they can be rather disturbing. We have them in the parks down here. They are like duck gangbangers. They like to hang out at walkway intersections, panhandling for crumbs.
    There is usually a leader of the duck gang, you can tell by the leather jacket and cigarette butt slouching out of the corner of his mouth. If you don’t give them crumbs, they will follow you, squawking and in increasing numbers as you walk along, and you find yourself wondering which one might be packing heat. Its very disconcerting, threatening even.
    I would trade these ducks for a kayak stand any day!”

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