Chesapeake Postcard

“Skipjack” style fishing boat, HM Krentz, at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Author Acroterion (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported)

I have lived in the Chesapeake Bay area for a year now.  Born and raised in New York City, I worked for many years as a lawyer there and Philadelphia.  The shift from urban to rural was deliberate on my part.  But it’s been dramatic.

Most residents here are farmers.  There are chicken houses and cornfields right outside town.  This time of year, the corn stands 7’ high.  What with the heat, it’s a wonder the crop doesn’t pop in the field!  But you can see the Milky Way at night.

The pace of things is slower here.  There’s one mall in town, and a pretty little park with no name.  People smile and hold the door.  Businesses still close on Sundays.

There are few McMansions.  You come across some homes so tiny that they’re basically studio apartments with a roof.  People gather in the school parking lot to watch fireworks on the 4^th of July.  But we have the amenities.  There’s a Walmart and a Home Depot.

Chains like Red Lobster and Longhorn Steak are about the fanciest restaurants around.  But you can find water in any direction, and catch your own lunch.

Fishermen – called “watermen” locally – have a long history on the Chesapeake.  Theirs though is a dying profession.  They can’t compete with the huge floating canneries.  Most kids go off to college, and pursue a different line of work than their fathers.  The Chesapeake, itself, is under assault from pollution.

We, also, get migrant workers who rotate through with the crops.  They work the small, family farms.  There is a fair share of rural poverty, something I didn’t realize before moving down here.

During the last few weeks of summer, I always find myself wondering how our Lord spent summer days before taking up His ministry.  I think He’d feel right at home here.

Of course, He is here…just as He was in Philadelphia and New York.  He sees the same Canada geese I see flying overhead, the hawks, the eagles, and the rest.  He’s out with the watermen, helping to pull in the nets.  Keeping an eye out for storms.

And there are storms on the horizon, not just the physical variety.  This is no utopia, any more than Philadelphia or New York were.  Despite their differences, however, all three are worth defending.

May God watch over them all.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse  https://avoicereclaimed.com