A SENSE OF PLACE

Corn Hill

EDWARD HOPPER REMINDS ME
My Favorite Part of America Is the Beach as Depicted in Corn Hill.
Corn Hill is in Truro on Cape Cod on the way to Provincetown.  Cape Cod is Red Sox territory to this Yankee fan.  Cape Cod is much more than that.  I thank Hopper for reminding me to salute Cape Cod and to salute Red Sox fans. This weekend Red Sox fans and Yankee fans are more alike than we both realize.  We share the designated hitter and a common history, a rivalry of brothers and of sisters.  The National League, all of it, sucks.  Thank you, Edward Hopper.

Thanks for reminding me that Cape Cod and Provincetown stick out in the ocean like an Italian fisherman in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.  Provincetown sticks out in the ocean like an Italian fisherman's arm flipping off the world with a simple gesture.  Provincetown is the gayest place on earth in the summer.  Or maybe that is Fire Island. 

The beach of Cape Cod looks like the beach of Long Island and the beach of New Jersey and of Delaware and Maryland.  The East Coast beach looks like itself in Nags Head on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  That East Coast beach is like America.  We are more similar than we realize. 

And that will always be so for a people who love freedom and the freedom to be different from each other and still have respect for each and for all.  We can live in city or country, love beach or moutain or fruited plain. God, if you believe in him or her or it or the trees, God shed his light on thee, America.  Or the light shines from within us all, godloving or godless both.

This weekend may God or whatever is in us bless America. Save us from people who would manipulate our minds and our emotions for their own ends, ends other than freedom.  Save us from having to hear God Bless America in the seventh inning of every ball game.  Save us from the fat Irish tenor Ronan Tynan that they have to air freight and drop into Yankee Stadium.  Save New York and America from Rudolf Giuliani.  Save us from those who would make us less than our best, here at home and abroad.  Let's just play some ball this weekend.  Or talk about how we love each other.

Where will you be this weekend?
 

Comments

[Diane]

I like Truro. We were in Provincetown a few years ago and kept getting drawn to Truro. Nice vineyards there, as well as the beach and a first-rate theatre. In the autumn, it's cold and rainy and the winds blow, and it's fun to go to the top of a lighthouse and get some lighthouse reality.

[jen]

gorgeous as always, H. what a way to start my day. merci!

[The Fixer]

I will be in the Land of Honey-Do.

[Karen]

"Save us from having to hear God Bless America in the seventh inning of every ball game."

YES!! Let's go back to Take Me Out to the Ball Game, or why didn't anyone think to sing America, the Beautiful - at least in that one, "God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood..., and then "God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!" and then, "May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine!" and, oh, you get the message...

[Lance Mannion]

I'm a Mets fan first, a Red Sox fan second. I'm a National League fan first, and an American League fan never, except when the Red Sox are in the World Series and not playing the Mets or when the Braves play or if and when Houston ever gets there.

But I am a Cape Cod fan above all, although we spend our vacations in Chatham not Truro.

And I am a Hopper fan.

By the way, the best league is not the National League or the American League. It's the Cape Cod League! Go Chatham A's!

Nice post.