"Your task will not be an easy one..."

       The following scene and conversation occurs on Utah Beach, one of the D-Day invasion beaches.    

  "The beach was wind-swept, large and angry. The gray sky hung low over the rough, choppy water, and the surf pounded the beach with an animosity. An ominous pall seemed to hang over the place. Old enforcements and battle walls, pillboxes, and even strands of barbed wire were visible while cattle grazed over the dunes in fields where one of the decisive engagements of mankind's warfare had played out in blood.

    "You can sense the terrible loss just standing here," Tim said, more to the wind than to Stroutsel, whose face was turned toward the beach, he seemed to be looking beyond time."

    Stroutsel cut the misty wind of the beach with his gravel-like voice. "'Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools.' Solomon, from Ecclesiastes, Calvin, it would do well for all of us to remember it."

    They stood wrapped in silence and reflection as if in a place of prayer as sand and wind and salt spray assaulted them. Stroutsel faced squarely into the wind, and oblivious of Tim's presence, in calm still voice spoke,

    "Baruch atah Adonai--Blessed art thou, O Lord, my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. My loving kindness and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge."

    Tim stood transfixed by the moment, and the sweeping emotions that girded them against the ghosts of this killing beach.

      "We are a mere breath, our days are like passing shadows," Stroutsel's voice began to fade as he walked north, his eyes cast on the sand, looking out to the sea. Tim let him go."

        It is a scene from my 1994 novel Sanibel Arcanum, in the chapter Island Darkness and a Norman Midnight. Now an old man, Stroutsel as a boy had been part of the French Resistance after escaping Germany when his parents and Jewish family were sent to a death camp. Tim Calvin was in France to speak with Stroutsel.

        I had spent time in Normandy, researching the D-Day beaches, cemeteries, memorials and historical sights associated with WWII. There is a hard earned reverence that one cannot help but to sense.

        

        These last few days boys who fought on those beaches, who watched friends die and who endured the hell of it 80 years ago have been back. They are men now100 or in their late 90's. In their weakened and rheumy voices they've been telling us what it was like, though today one vet said, "you never forget."

        

“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely ... I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. General Dwight Eisenhower 

        We are in their debt.

        See you down the trail.

Looking at it... A Letter to the Queen...Remember

evening flight out of Cambria

 invoking memories of that other beach of june

     94% of the some 308 million US citizens and residents were not alive 75 years ago when young men shrugged off their fear and summoned courage to experience one of this world's hellish days. 

     At great cost, D-Day altered the course of WWII and in turn influenced human history.  The 6% of those alive on that June 6 remember of course. Like the brave men, their numbers are thinning. It is crucial the rest of us pay respect and remember. We are forever in their debt.

regional architecture

 glimpses of the court house

Santa Barbara

an old favorite is healing

 good to see the Montecito Inn recovered

from the disastrous floods and mud flow

 the place chaplin built is back to its classic self

we're sorry

     Dear Queen and the people of England,

          We're sorry, very, very sorry. Thank you for your civility, though most of us wish you would have listened to the mayor of London and simply locked the door and refused to  let the undeserving sully your most excellent castle. America is so embarrassed. 

           As you know the man is a bit of lout who most of us detest. We, the majority did not vote for him. His biggest fan is his Russian sugar daddy and some off us are not sure he didn't somehow vote for him. I hope you can understand most Americans don't think he should be let out of the house, let alone visit royalty in your dignified realm.

          We're sorry he shot off his mouth about your domestic politics. Please recall that no other American President has  done that.  Please know he's not really a President; he doesn't behave like one, or work like one. In fact he doesn't work much at all. He watches TV and uses his phone.
          Most of us were sad he even disparaged some of our own people while he was in your land. We don't approve of that. Real Presidents don't do that sort of thing.

          We hope you check the rooms he might have wondered into, make sure everything is still there, especially anything that is gold. Look for chicken bones too. Some may be stashed around.

         Your majesty, we think what you said about the old alliances was spot on. Of course the fool was probably looking at his reflection in something and missed your salient point. He doesn't read, you may have heard. And he doesn't listen to his advisors. He's impulsive and he's really rather stupid. You probably knew that the moment you saw how that tuxedo fit him. Don't you think a guy who pretends to be rich could afford a better fit? Maybe he can't help it that he's a slob. 
          What did you think about that crown he wears? What do you think it is? 

        We hope he didn't suggest that you put your name on the castle. Wouldn't surprise us though. It would have been tacky if he asked you if he could his name on it. He might of told you that's what he does. Did he tell you that his home has more gold than yours? We call his style of decorating 
"Bordello Deluxe."

       It really hurt a lot of us to see this tax criminal and mob boss getting to meet you and your family and to be amongst the most refined. Did he grab any of the women? We're sorry if he did. He's got a habit of that sort of thing, but so many people here who should do something about his ways, are just sycophants. I guess they are afraid of him or maybe it's his followers. 
       Maybe you've seen him and his people on television. They stand behind him and shout and yell while he acts like a dictator. We think that's really what he wants to be. He doesn't have the manners to be a King. But you may have noticed how much his mannerisms are like Mussolini. If you haven't noticed that, look at some old film.
      We are always afraid when he tries to act like he knows something about world affairs. He's got a crush on Putin-he idolizes him. You've probably heard him say he trusts Vlad more than he trusts his own national security staff. Yea, I know, most of us can't believe it either! Did he tell you how much he loves Kim. 
       Well, in all honesty there are a minority of US citizens who like him. Maybe you've seen those people who stand behind him at the rallies, they don't seem to care how offensive or unhinged he looks and sounds. They don't seem like very nice people. They seem to be like those people who went to lynchings. They don't even care how many thousands of documented times he lies. That's scary isn't it. Maybe they are just paid actors. Or maybe they think he's smart. That probably tells you how poorly we Americans have taught history and civics. We're sorry about that too. We think that needs to change. He is probably the best example of why.

       Oh, how we wish you would have refused to see him, or maybe invited just his wife to tea and sent him to the tower. 

       Don't hold him against us. At least not all of us. Over here a lot of folks are easily fooled, or they don't know much, or they do a good job of justifying things, or maybe they are just stupid. I know that isn't politically correct, but in all honestly there's a lot of  stupid going around now.

       Well, thanks for being nice to such a lout. He really is a poor soul. And he's not well. We don't know if he lies so much because of his mental illness, or because he's been a cheat and liar his whole life, something he learned from his father who was also a racist. We don't dislike him because of his illness, we just dislike haters, criminals, racists, sexual predators, bullies, liars, braggers, bluffers and rotten people.     
       So maybe your being so hospitable will lodge somewhere in that oversized and unfit body and start something that will turn him into a decent human being, who pays attention to his job, and listens to experts and cares about people and stops being a bully and a fool.

        Well, your majesty, we can hope and pray. We Americans do that a lot and as you know it has helped us through tough times before. But please don't invite him over again. There are so many other Americans, who know so much more, and are more refined, and better read, who are more kind and who can find clothes that fit.

Sincerely,
Embarrassed in California

      See you down the trail.

IMMORTALITY and THE GREAT CRUSADE

FROM JUNE TO HISTORY

    Time records extraordinary courage and human insight on two June 6ths.  

     Most recently, 70 years ago General Dwight Eisenhower called it "the Great Crusade," the D-Day invasion immortalized by the bravery of warriors, so many of whom ended their own mortal journey on the beaches of Northern France. A personal D-Day beach reflection follows below.

    75 years before that a single man, venturing into the unknown pondered human existence and the infinite.

EVERY NERVE QUIVERS

    John Muir made his first visit to Yosemite in the summer of 1869. On June 6th he wrote-

                     "We are now in the mountains and they are

                       in us...making every nerve quiver."    

       It seems that it has always been such for Yosemite.
     In 1851 an ongoing battle between gold miners and the native inhabitants, American Indians, reached a point where the famous Mariposa Battalion was sent in. Probably from the moment the Battalion saw the place, word about its beauty began to spread.

          On June 30,1864 President Abraham Lincoln set aside a grove of sequoias in the valley.  That marked the creation of the first state park in the US. 
        Naturalist John Muir, who spent years exploring the wilderness, campaigned for federal park status. It took 26 years and in 1890 Yosemite became a national park.

   Later on June 6, 1869 Muir wrote-

         "Our flesh and bone tabernacle seems transparent

         as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an 

         inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees

         streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun-a part of 

         all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but

         immortal."

       Two rivers, the Merced and the Tuolumne flow through the park. There are 196 miles of road and 800 miles of trails. 

        The waterfalls are a signature, always spectacular, and even more so after a winter with lots of snow.

 Do you see the sprite or spirit dancing out of this falls in this frame?

      The land is described as "colossal."  Indeed it is.  It ranges from 2,000 feet to 13,000 and most of it is true wilderness.

    As Muir said on his first summer in Yosemite "How wonderful the power of its beauty."

    WHERE FICTION CARRIES TRUTH

    A scene from my novel The Sanibel Arcanum has the protagonist, Tim Calvin visit Utah Beach, a D-Day invasion sight with Stroutsel a Jewish survivor who had been part of the French underground resistance.

  The beach was windswept, large and angry.  The gray sky hung low over the rough choppy water, and the surf pounded the beach with an intensity that bordered on animosity. Old enforcements and battle walls, pill boxes and even strands of barbed wire were visible, while cattle grazed over the dunes in fields where one of the decisive engagements of mankind's warfare had been played out in blood.

    "You can sense the terrible loss just standing here," Tim said more to the wind than Stroutsel, whose face was turned toward the beach.  "Doesn't this bring back the anger, the hatred?"

     Stroutsel cut the misty wind of the beach with his gravel-like voice.  "Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools. That's from Solomon in Ecclesiastes, Calvin, it would do well for all of us to remember it."

     They stood, wrapped in silence and reflection as in a place of prayer as sand, wind and salt spray assaulted them.  Stroutsel faced squarely into the wind."Baruch, atah- Adonai-Blessed are though, O Lord, my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.  My loving kindness and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and He in whom I take refuge.

      Tim stood transfixed by the moment and the sweeping emotions which girded them against the ghosts of this killing beach.

      "We are a mere breath, our days are like passing shadows," Stroutsel's voice faded as he walked north his eyes cast on the sand and looking out to the sea.  Tim let him go.  He walked to the memorials and read the names of those young men who had fallen on this strip of sand and sea."

    On Utah Beach alone some 2,500 US troops and 1,900 allied troops were killed. Thousands of others were killed on the other landing beaches as well as glider pilots and Naval support troops.  The Germans lost between 4 and 9 thousand  on D-Day.

    There is an almost palpable presence that remains on those Norman beaches.

    See you down the trail.

SUCK IT IN

 THE FUTURE IS NOT CHEAP

     Sometimes vision comes with a price and acrimony.  

     The US is overdue in brining rail trail into modernity. Other nations put us to shame and our transportation matrix suffers by lack of high speed trains.  This week the California legislature will vote on Governor Jerry Brown's attempt to build the nation's first high speed line. 

      Many criticize the plan, saying it is too expensive, we can't afford it in a recession, that the opening leg is on a non crucial route.

      Governor Brown is quoted as saying "Suck it in.  We've got to build, we got do it right."

       I agree.  There is probably never a time we can "afford" to undertake a leap into the future, so it is easy to put it off and as time passes it never happens.  Exactly why the US is a pathetic player when it comes to rail travel.

       There is a Chinese wisdom, from LaoTsu, that says "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  This is California's opportunity to start the US on that journey. It will cost more later, it is already seriously delayed and it will be good for future generations.  
      Jerry Brown's father, Governor Pat Brown authored the California State Water Plan and helped push the Golden State into the future. There was acrimony over his idea, but the flourishing of the Central Valley agriculture, the water resources in Southern California and other measures have proven to be the positive outcome of a visionary plan.  In this case it is "like father, like son." 

      High speed rail has proven itself in Germany, Japan, France and other nations.  
     It's time to "suck it up" and get on with the future.

DAY FILE

THE SPIT & THE ROCK

     History abounds in this shot.  The Rock, at the end of the spit is the famed Morro Rock, a volcano plug and one of the "Nine Sisters" of volcanic and tectonic formed mountains that follow the central coast from Morro Bay, south to below San Luis Obispo.

     The "Rock" was named by the Portugese explorer Juan Cabrillo in 1542.  He thought the rock looked like a Moor, the North African people of whom the men wore turbans.

     The spit is naturally occurring, but augmented by breakwaters built by the army.  During WW II landing craft were housed in the harbor and the spit was used as part of

training exercises.  Some of the D-Day invaders practiced  "hitting the beach" from landing craft on the spit.  

     In December 1941 the Morro Rock was struck by shells fired from a Japanese U boat.  It was the same day the oil tanker Montebello was sunk by a Japanese submarine.

     Today the Spit offers a scenic and athletic hiking trail.

INTO THE SUNSET

Here are a couple of minutes of nature for you

See you down the trail.