Spy Top Story

Neil King Goes for a Walk

May 9, 2021 by Dave Wheelan 3 Comments

Spy readers may remember the name of Neil King from a few months ago when he generously contributed a masterful treatment of Frederick Douglass and the historic landscapes of the Eastern Shore. But he is best known as the well-respected global economics editor for the Wall Street Journal, who now calls Claiborne, a hamlet a few miles east of St. Michaels, his weekend home, where he works on independent projects that capture his imagination.

So shortly after he completed one of those projects for the Spy, he fulfilled a long-term aspiration this spring by opening the front door of his house in Washington, D.C. one morning and walking to the heart of Manhattan over the next 26 days.

There were several motivations for this particular journey. Neil had wanted for some time to retrace the steps of many of the founding fathers in the 18th Century who were required to make similar trips between the new country’s northern and southern regions. He also thought the experience would make an interesting book that continued the tradition of such travel writers as de Tocqueville and Dickens in documenting Mid-Atlantic America.

But what King didn’t anticipate during this leisurely stroll (he stayed at B&B’s and hotels along the way) through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey was how his daily encounters with “real Americans” would result in what he could only describe as a religious experience. For it was not only the sense of connection with people who were so different from his own background and political beliefs but how stunning and meaningful this old pathway had become for him and his hopes for America’s future

The Spy sat down with Neil at the Claiborne Village Hall last week to talk about that experience as he prepares to collect his journals, images, and thoughts for a book we can hardly wait for.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length.

Food Friday: Postcards from Home

May 7, 2021 by Jean Sanders 1 Comment

Sunday is Mother’s Day, just in case you forgot. If you are reading this on Friday, it’s too late for you to mail a card, or to order flowers. Which supposes that you celebrate Mother’s Day. It was always a minefield when I was growing up. My mother stated loudly, and often, that, “It’s a Hallmark holiday. It doesn’t mean anything.” And yet, she seemed to enjoy the nosegays of flowers we pilfered from her garden, and our homemade, decidedly not Hallmark, cards: the power of Cray-Pas and oaktag.

I’m sure these popularized holidays are minefields in many other homes where lives are complicated. Mother’s Day might be painful for people whose mothers have died. There’s divorce. There’s estrangement. There’s distance. There are step-mothers. There are custody issues. Mothers go away. Boyfriends. Girlfriends. Uncomfortable situations and memories abound. However you spend Sunday, be nice. Smile, even if you are wearing a mask – people can tell the difference. A home-picked fistful of flowers might go a long way. And so would a phone call.

I’m planning on a nice, simple homemade breakfast. Our children have long since flown the coop, yet sometimes we look up with surprise that it is just the two of us again. We no longer have to make acres of pancakes, use a whole loaf of bread for toast, or fry a pound of bacon. We are adapting to recipes for two. I’ll mentally thank my mother for the family recipe for biscuits, which you will find on the side of the box of Bisquick. Mom did not enjoy cooking much, just the ceremonial bits like Christmas cookies, and birthday cakes, and the annual corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. For her, less time in the kitchen meant more time in the garden, or more time reading. It is an admirable philosophy, and one I intend to practice this weekend.

Bisquick Biscuits
• 2 1/4 cups Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup milk
• Heat oven to 450°F. Stir ingredients until soft dough forms.
• Drop dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. (I like to roll the dough out, and cut it into circles, using the ancestral biscuit cutter)
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. (Be careful, it is very easy to burn their bottoms.)
(These freeze nicely, so you might still have some in reserve for Father’s Day.)

Our clever friends at Food52 understand the primal need for biscuits, and not just for breakfast: https://food52.com/blog/13819-13-recipes-for-when-you-just-need-a-biscuit

Over at Bon Appétit, they get a little carried away with themselves. However, my friend who worked at Bon Appétit, taught me a less complicated way to prepare bacon, which leaves more time for the Sunday papers, because it is relatively hands-free. We use thick cut bacon, so if you use thinner bacon, keep an eye on things – you do not want it to burn.

Baked Bacon
• Pre-heat oven to 425°F
• Line a sheet with parchment paper
• Lay the bacon slices on the parchment paper (We figure on 2 slices per person, and 1 for the dog)
• Put sheet pan into the oven, and set a timer for 12 minutes (It is easy to get lost in the Style section)
Sometimes Mr. Sanders, who likes to fuss, will turn the bacon halfway through the cooking process. I ignore it.
• Take bacon out when it is done enough for you. Drain the pieces on paper towels. Make the dog wait until you have finished eating.
The fancier Bon Appétit way: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/brown-sugar-glazed-bacon

Whipped Cream Pat for Fruit
You must have fresh fruit for breakfast! And fruit bathed in our latest invention at the very least. We baked some cream puffs a couple of weeks ago, and improvised the most delicious filling ever in the whole wide world. We mixed whipped cream into the creme pat. Luckily, there was a large bowl of filling left over. You can be a reasonable adult and mix some whipped cream into vanilla yogurt if you want. Or you can be a cool kid, and try our mixture with your farm-fresh, you-picked-them strawberries. Make this ahead of time. Maybe for your Saturday night cream puffs.

Creme Patissiere
https://prettysimplesweet.com/creme-patissiere/
Add 2 cups of homemade whipped cream and combine. And now you see why we had leftovers. Believe me, you will enjoy this for a while.

We never know what is going on with other folks, so remember to be kind. Holidays can be anxious events. Make a nice, simple breakfast, read the paper, get out into the garden, pick up the phone.

“It was delightful to wake up early and refreshed, and come down to this sunshiny, cheerful breakfast-table, where, though nothing was grand, all was thoroughly comfortable.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

“I sit quietly and think about my mom. It’s funny how memory erodes, If all I had to work from were my childhood memories, my knowledge of my mother would be faded and soft, with a few sharp memories standing out.”
― Audrey Niffenegger

At the Academy: Meeting the New AAM Director Sarah Jesse

May 5, 2021 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

There is something unmistakably exciting in the air when the leading regional art institution in the area announces a new leader. It marks a time for new beginnings and typically a new vision of what an art museum can be for its community. So when the Academy Art Museum released the news that Sarah Jesse had been appointed as its new Director, the Spy noticed a few clues.

The fact that Jesse has spent most of her career in art education might give you a hint of what the AAM trustees were thinking when they hired her. But when we talked to Sarah last Saturday as she and her family prepare the move from Orange County to the Eastern Shore, the institutional priority on access for all to art is a major driving force for her on the vision front.

The child of blue-collar parents in a very rural part of Michigan, Sarah’s decision to have a career in art demonstrates how a chance encounter with fine arts can open an entirely new world for a young person. After a high school aptitude test suggested she might consider a career as a curator as well as a class trip to the Detroit Institute of Art, she quickly took that option when deciding her major at Oberlin College.

What followed has been 17 years of experience with positions at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art; Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and most recently, the interim Director of the highly-regarded Orange County Museum of Art.

In between house hunting and preparing for a six-hour AAM live event where she would be meeting museum members throughout the day, Sarah sat down with us to talk about her background and the importance of access to the arts.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum please go here.

NAIMA Begins Redefining “Sense of Community” by Val Cavalheri

May 3, 2021 by Val Cavalheri 3 Comments

NAIMA—Definition: A John Coltrane song, a name, an Arabic word meaning ‘to be content’ and, for Easton, MD, a sense of community.

NAIMA Ventures is a community partnership project created to provide workforce housing in the Jowite, Clay, and Port Street area in Easton. It is headed by Kendrick Daly, son of Derick Daly, founder of BAAM (Building African American Minds). Derick is also serving as Treasurer for this organization, along with Andrew Daly, Vice President, and William Ryan, Secretary.

The 2.5-acre project is located across from the BAAM Center and is currently 14 duplexes that will be torn down to create a 56-unit complex. Daly Gardens, as it will be known, will consist of one, two, and three-bedroom rental apartments with a focus on teachers and health care workers who may not be able to afford to live in Easton.

Daly Gardens is another part of building a vibrant community that is the goal of NAIMA. What first began with BAAM and their partnership with Talbot County Public Schools led to the opening of the BAAM Athletic Center, dedicated to athletics and academics. In 2020, despite the pandemic, the Polaris Village Academy, a tuition-free private school, and the Polaris Village Ministries were launched, further cementing their ‘village of support.’ And it is that support that will partner with NAIMA and offer rent assistance to applicants who are needed in the community.

Says Ryan: “One of the problems that we’ve tried to address is getting teachers of color into the Talbot County School District. It’s well known that if a child of color has two or more teachers of color during their elementary school years, they’re going to do much better. But the problem is, it’s expensive to live here, especially for young teachers to want to choose to come to Talbot County; it’s not affordable.”

There’s another reason for the project, and it goes back to the ‘village concept.’ “It will be a place,” says Derick, “where people want to live and know that they’re part of a community. There is the Athletic Center, a school, the Mount Pisgah Church, that will provide childcare and early childhood education, and a food program.”

“When I grew up,” added Ryan, “we had a neighborhood where everybody knew everybody. It’s way different, and so that’s all we’re trying to do here. We want to create a place where everyone can live safely and know that if something goes wrong with your family, there are other families there that are part of the network.”

NAIMA wants us to know that is not some lofty dream. This is what happened with our athletic center,” said Derick. “People were asking, ‘why are you going out of your way like this,’ and the answer is because what builds kids up is a community.” Ryan agreed. “Derick learned 15 years ago with BAAM that we can help those boys but only if they feel that they’re part of a society that looks out for them.”

The Town of Easton has been supportive, according to the group, as they wait for approvals for the plan. In particular, they’re hoping to see a change in the density rules. Says Kendrick, “There is a shortage of workforce housing in Easton, and by getting more density in one area, we will be able to more than double the number of workforce units and charge less for rent.”

Ultimately, there is an additional goal: NAIMA wants to share their successful model with other developers to show them they can be profitable and responsible in the community.

This video is approximately three minutes in length and was produced by Alana Yzola. For more information about

Snapshots Of Daily Life: Snapshots by George Merrill

May 2, 2021 by George R. Merrill 2 Comments

My children and my grandchildren possess, I’d say conservatively, at least thousands of photographic images of their family life. It seems to me that every second of their lives is being documented by a digital photograph; some pictures are printed out, others live in cyberspace where they have plenty of room and can be reached at the touch of a button.

This comes in sharp contrast to the collection of photographs I have from my growing up years. Compared to a post-modern family, my own photographs consist of a highly limited selection, scraggly at that, and most turning a light brown like onions that I’ve left in the bin too long.

I’ve noticed that my children and grandchildren’s digital images vibrate with rich saturated colors. They also have a visual acuity as sharp as a knife’s edge. I would have to say that they do come off as consistently joyful and celebratory. The black and white pictures of my own growing up years are marginal in quality and compared to my kids’, they seem like historic documentaries. Mine have a prevailing solemnity to them so even scenes from children’s birthday parties in the 40’s and 50’s, the children don’t appear to be having much fun but rather trying obediently to follow the photographer’s exhortation to hold still and say cheese.

What am I to make of this? A couple of things come to mind.

Not only have the complexities of handling cameras been dramatically reduced by the arrival of digital photography, but the volume of still images that can be taken digitally in a minute exceeds a film camera’s capacity for a year. Film cameras typically had 36 snaps and that was it. If you had the energy to reload another film into the camera you seriously jeopardized the mood of your subjects. You might compare this film-reloading moment in picture taking to the art of love; when being performed with mutual satisfaction requires uninterrupted attention for the whole thing to go well. If you do stop to scratch your foot or your elbow, you do it at great cost to what you’re about.

Candid photography of today, with its effortless mechanics, leaves the photographer free to click away and get great shots with the no real concerns about shadows, highlights, focal distance or anything that traditionally would intrude upon achieving decent images. The good news is how in modern photography the photographer can be highly mobile and a lot more invisible as he doesn’t need to fuss a lot with equipment. This allows for amazing spontaneity.

I had an odd thought the other day about all this. Will people four generations hence have any interest when they see a yellow deckled edge picture of my aunt Daisy wearing her white gloves and flowered hat, or a photo taken in 1936 on my second birthday where I’m looking grumpy in front of a birthday cake? Today’s digital images will certainly be more colorful and sharper but as they increase in volume, what will they come to mean to people? The sheer volume of pictures is already staggering and growing by the day. When the market’s flooded, things tend to lose value. Selecting what images may be kept or pitched will be a daunting task. Will the mystique of the photograph be lost among millions and millions of images? I don’t know.

As I think of pictures, I recall in 1940, when I saw my first rendering of world class art. A family friend I called Uncle Tommy, copied three famous paintings. Tommy was French, a chemist and an expert manufacturer of colors. The copies were exquisitely rendered. They were prominently displayed in the living room. They fascinated me.

One was Gaugin’s ‘Two Tahitian Women,’ the other two were Van Gogh’s ‘Self-portrait with a Bandage and Pipe’ and Van Gogh’s famous ‘Sunflowers’. I was in and out of the house frequently and the paintings became etched in my mind. I knew nothing about painting. Uncle Tommy said once that the paintings took a long time to complete.

I’m not sure why but over the years I’ve never put my own photographs on the walls of my studio. I had a recent urge to do that. I chose three images I was extremely fond of, because of the moment they represented and for their quality. They were scenes on the western shore taken shortly after I first arrived in Maryland and was dazzled by its stunning landscapes. One was at Elk Neck State Park, the other two at the Gunpowder Falls. The photographs are large. I enlarged them to 16 x 20. They are well done, but I’ve wondered that they mean more to me because of the time and the place where the pictures were taken. Each was a precious moment in my life that I once saw through a lens darkly and it came to life in a click.

I suspect that those of us accustomed to having much, there are some for whom the plenty is not what is so rewarding; it’s the little, the few, even the tiny, just a couple of things or even fleeting moments. Among so much abundance that life brings, the real treasures can be harder to spot than for those who know and understand scarcity.

To my knowledge Uncle Tommy never made other paintings other than the Van Gogh’s and the Gauguin. It may have been enough for him, the specialness of it. I will never know what that was.

Columnist George Merrill is an Episcopal Church priest and pastoral psychotherapist. A writer and photographer, he’s authored two books on spirituality: Reflections: Psychological and Spiritual Images of the Heart and The Bay of the Mother of God: A Yankee Discovers the Chesapeake Bay. He is a native New Yorker, previously directing counseling services in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Baltimore. George’s essays, some award winning, have appeared in regional magazines and are broadcast twice monthly on Delmarva Public Radio.

Editor’s Note:

One of the great traditions of the Spy for many years, according to many of our readers, is waking up to George Merrill’s essays on Sunday mornings.

Since 2015, George has graced the pages of the Spy with now some 330 commentaries with his beautifully nuanced, playful, but ultimately powerful moral observations. To my knowledge, he has never missed a Sunday since we started. But the other day he let me know he wanted a small break from the six year routine. He told me he would be taking a mini-sabbatical of sorts starting next week.

The need to renew one’s self as a writer is as fundamental as the impulse to write itself. And so, like many Spy readers, I will wait, somewhat impatiently, as George forces himself to put down his pen (and it is a pen, not a computer) to recharge for a few weeks.

While he warns he might break this self-imposed retreat at any time, it’s fair to note to his considerable fan base that it will not be a regular occurrence during the Spring.

In the meantime, the Spy will attempt to fill the gap with the inauguration of the “Spy Sunday Essay” by guest writers later this month. More on that later.

Food Friday: May Day Cocktail Party

April 30, 2021 by Jean Sanders Leave a Comment

May starts tomorrow. Isn’t that amazing? Winter is gone and spring is well and truly sprung. There are real leaves on the trees. The sun is warm in the afternoon. It is going to be nice enough to have a tiny, and socially distanced, cocktail hour on the back porch with another couple of vaxxed friends. Dr. Fauci would approve of our medicinal wine. We are coming back.

It has been such a long time since we socialized. Zoom calls, which were charming when they were relatively novel, were great for the first couple of attempts. I loved seeing whatever spot in everyone’s house had the best WiFi: Emily’s dining room with elegant molding, Daphne’s comfy and cozy front parlor, Maura’s tidy spare bedroom. But it was impossible to exchange an amused look, or arch an eyebrow, without the whole group noticing. And really, everyone was looking with horror at themselves. Those lock-down hairdos were not flattering. Black is not as slimming as one might hope. Have I always guffawed like that, or is it a habit developed during the pandemic?

The first people we will have over will not be our dearest friends, or even our relatives, so it will be a good time to practice niceties and work out the rusty kinks in our social skills. Thus the invention of the cocktail hour – it smooths away some of the rough edges, and renders us slightly more attractive for a short period of time. When we can then slink back to our lairs, and reassess our places in society.

Washington College, back in our day, had a healthy May Day tradition of streaking. I don’t think we will indulge in either real or virtual streaking this year. Maybe next year, when things are a little more normal, and we have lost the weight gained while bingeing on Grey’s Anatomy and Game of Thrones. This year we will keep our slimming black outfits on, while showing off our new haircuts, and enjoying a thankful libation. Tra la. It’s May.

It is an opportunity to drink Prosecco in the form of mimosas. Deelish. https://cookieandkate.com/2017/best-mimosa-recipe/

We won’t be entertaining a crowd, but sometimes it is nice to have a little bowl of punch all made and ready for guests. I have a vintage, thrift shop, sterling, sailing trophy that I use for a punch bowl. I like polishing silver in anticipation of an event. There is something festive about punch. Especially with floating strawberries, which are right in season now.
https://thebusybaker.ca/easy-party-punch/
https://www.thecookierookie.com/strawberry-lemonade-party-punch/

Is it too early for an icy blender drink? That is a ridiculous question. Of course not. Haul out the blender and rustle up some ice: https://www.thespruceeats.com/may-day-cocktail-recipe-760543

The best food at cocktail parties is finger food. It is hard enough to hold onto a drink, so who can manage an additional plate, napkin, and fork or knife? I know I have little inclination, or skill, for that balancing act. There are only so many flat areas on our back porch, anyway. We can line up a few platters of treats, and then retire to our respective corners during this tentative foray back into society.

With Cinco de Mayo happening next week, it is the perfect time to have a little Mexican food: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/g19876275/mexican-recipes/

I love fresh pink radishes, especially outdoors, dipped in a little Maldon salt. This recipe is more sophisticated and swish: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/radishes-with-herbed-salt-and-olive-oil-56389336

It used to be that pigs-in-blankets were essential party food, especially when we were entertaining other parents, who had their children in tow. There aren’t any children coming over this weekend, but we can remember the delightful times we had with them: https://www.marthastewart.com/1047656/pigs-blankets

A little more elegant, and very spring-y, are asparagus spears wrapped with Prosciutto ham and phyllo dough. No silverware necessary: https://food52.com/recipes/3998-asparagus-wrapped-in-phyllo-and-prosciutto

This event can be a nice little bit of practice for our re-introduction into society. I am looking forward to some real life, real-time experiences. It will be good to see your smiling face again.

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”
― Ernest Hemingway

The Library Guy: Finding Harriet Tubman’s Home with Julie Schablitsky

April 28, 2021 by Bill Peak Leave a Comment

As part of The Spy’s partnership with the Talbot County Free Library, Bill Peak interviews Dr. Julie Schablitsky, Chief Archaeologist for the Maryland Dept. of Transportation’s State Highway Administration.

Dr. Schablitsky and her team announced earlier this month the discovery of the spot in Dorchester County where Harriet Tubman’s father, Ben Ross, had his home, and where Harriet would have spent some of her childhood and learned much of her tradecraft.

Speaking of the find, Douglas Mitchell, a direct descendant of Ben Ross, said, “On this joyous occasion, more than 160 years after Ben Ross departed his humble cabin never to return, all freedom-and-justice-loving Americans are Ross kin, celebrating this immensely important archaeological discovery and the priceless revelations it is destined to offer.”

The Library Guy is made possible through a partnership between the Talbot County Free Library and the Spy Newspapers.

Standing with Horses: Equine Therapy at Worthmore

April 26, 2021 by James Dissette

The equine arena at Bridges at Worthmore is cavernous, well lighted, and clean. A door slides open, and two horses enter, roll on their backs for a moment, and stand. I’m invited by Bridge therapists Robin Dunning and Lisa Kliever to approach the horses, to stand with them.

I have no idea what I’m doing or what I can achieve from this, but I want to find out. Why are these immense, beautiful animals so successful in helping to heal victims suffering from trauma?

I’m self-conscious, vigilant, tense, and overthinking. The three of us look at each other, but I realize that I’m the only one trying to interpret the moment cerebrally—the horses are just being their magnificent selves and have already scanned and assessed my emotional space.

The chatter of the mind quiets, and I’m suddenly not just standing with horses; I am in the company of horses. The dynamic has changed as a subtle trust between us emerges. There’s no reason to try to think this through, to interpret while experiencing. That’s the noise of the mind dislocated from feeling, the somatic region of the body where our traumas are often buried, deep in the tissue bruised by life’s experiences. We stand quietly.

Worthmore Equestrian Center, north of Chestertown, is home to its founders, Pam and Eric Kuster. The Kusters moved to the Eastern Shore with the purchase of the 1854 farmhouse in 2003. With more than 40 years of experience in the horse industry, Pam launched into advocacy work after her son’s diagnosed with autism in 1992. Noting a need for therapeutic opportunities for children with special needs, Pam took a position at the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN) and became the Executive Co-Director.

Aside from being a full-service equestrian facility providing care for both horses and horse enthusiasts, it is also the parent organization to two equine therapy programs, the Kent Association of Riding Therapy (KART) and the Bridges Program, programs with distinct differences in their therapeutic application: the KART program is a therapy model where clients ride the horse and the Bridges EAGALA program is an on-the-ground interactive environment.

Robin Dunning, an Equine Specialist/EAGALA certified therapist who volunteers at Bridges, says that AEGALA only works with horses on the ground. “At first, they did have some riding involved, but they took that out of. the program. Riding is a dynamic change, the rider controlling the horse; AEGALA’s philosophy is for the therapy to be a level playing field. The horses are not trained, and we want them to show up as they are, naturally, to interact with the client,” she says.

The Bridges model is based on the international EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association. Founded in 1999, the organization now reaches 40 countries with 500 programs, and their practitioners are credentialed mental health professionals or equine specialists who have been certified through rigorous training. Through its immediacy, this model offers faster emotional breakthroughs than lengthier talk-therapy-based therapies.

“Under the AEGALa model, think of it as kind of a horse intervention. We are looking at everything that happens as we look through the “trauma” lens. If a human participant shows up and has an underlying, untreated trauma history, that will come with them. It’s important to understand that trauma is held with the body, in your bones, muscles, and nerves, and that’s why AEGALA works so well because you use your body. If we stay up in our pre-frontal cortex and use cognitive therapy all the time, that’s not going to treat the trauma. Re-telling the story does not heal the trauma,” says Lisa Kliever, an AEGALA certified Psychotherapist from Annapolis.

Bridges Director Barbie Glenn explained that horses as prey animals have evolved with a hyper-sensitivity to their environment—always looking for threats— and analyze and react to human body language and other non-verbal cues. This acute awareness within a therapy session with humans can become a mirroring process reflecting anxiety, fear, anger, and pain.

During the therapy sessions, the therapists stand back quietly and take note of the how the horses react to the client, noting behavioral clues: ears back, heads down, stance.

Robin Dunning tells an illustrative story about a study comparing heart rates between horses and the clients walking with them around an arena. “The subjects were told that an umbrella would suddenly open to startle the two at the fourth station of the arena. However, when they reached the fourth station, no umbrella opened, but the subject’s heart rate spiked in anticipation. Only after the human’s heart rate spiked did the horse’s heart rate rise in response,” she says.

Clients are first introduced to a session by therapists carefully using an instructional but unbiased tone, careful not to introduce bias or expectation. Each client is simply asked a perplexing question—what is their goal for the session?

From there, a client, may it be a couple, family, or business team-building group, is invited to approach the horses while the therapists observe. At the end of the session—a closure often dictated by the horses themselves as they walk away—clients are debriefed by the therapy team using feeling-based language and based on how they observed the horses during the interaction.

Bridges at Worthmore recently received approval from the Veterans Administration as the first service animal program on the Eastern Shore. For no-cost, Maryland veterans can join the adaptive riding program or work with Bridge therapists for up to ten sessions.

Since Bridge’s focus and expertise are trauma, veterans with PTSD, substance abuse or relationship issues can discover a healing environment with no disruption to their current healthcare program.

“Without a single word, horses offer veterans something therapists and doctors are often unable to: unconditional trust and an environment free from judgment,” Glenn says.

At the end of the session I tried to explain how I felt about standing with horses. Certainly, there was the tranquility of the moment but there were other dynamics at work. Self-centeredness drifted away leaving a sense of inarticulate wonder. I don’t know if that’s a kind of herd-acceptance, but I felt included.

“It’s usually a day or two later you begin to internalize the session,” Barbi Glenn, says.

I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

This video is a combination of two visits to Bridges at Worthmore, pre-vaccination, and post-vaccination of all involved, hence the appearance of masked and unmasked interviews. The mock-session clients were Dawson Hunter, KCLMBs Housing and Transportation Coordinator, and Rosemary Granillo, Director of Kent County Local Management Board.

This video is approximately eight minutes long. To find out more about Bridges at Worthmore go here.

Snapshots of Daily Life: Justice by George Merrill

April 25, 2021 by George R. Merrill

Last Tuesday, Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the murder of George Floyd. The jury, a racially diverse group of seven women and five men, deliberated 10 hours before reaching their verdict: Chauvin was found guilty of second – degree murder, third– degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

I understand this trial as an epic event in American social history. It signals a change in course that allows greater possibilities for a vibrant America; vibrant because all its citizens can have a place at the table and when they speak, they will be heard.

For over 300 years the African American community has endured relentless abuse and exploitation by a white establishment –– a white community that enjoyed a free hand by assuming an unchallenged assumption of power and privilege which was never constitutionally theirs.

Over the years, Blacks were convinced that their grievances would never even be considered much less justly addressed by the legal system.

America’s law enforcement establishment has rarely been held accountable for the conduct in its behavior toward minority groups and especially African-Americans.

Two cancers that have festered in the American soul for generations, I believe, found redress by the decision on Tuesday in the George Floyd trial.
The law enforcement system and the officers who execute its responsibilities have been delivered a mandate. They can now expect to be held legally accountable for how they perform their duties. They will be required to act in a disciplined manner and to abide by specific conventions of policing protocol. They will abide by codes of conduct.

I was particularly aware of how this trial came on the heels of the previous administration. One of its characteristics of this administration was the unconscionable ways in which it flaunted conventions of government and its codes of conduct. Social and federal protocols were flagrantly trivialized with no apparent demands for accountability coming from the congress. Federal agencies were casually manipulated, loyal government servants were abused and humiliated, while the White House itself, our national symbol, was co opted by the president as a public relations stunt for his own personal interests. Playing by the rules was trivialized. The importance of accountability in public service had been treated dismissively.

The verdict in the trial I saw, in one sense, as symbolic: it begins a process of not only vindicating the abuses suffered by African-Americans, but in an ironic way, the verdict also served to restore to white America the soul it had lost in the practices of administering justice.

Imagine for a moment the Black population now in our midst. It consists of roughly 49 million people. Here are American citizens who have been forced to hide their lamps under a bushel, so that the unique light they have ready to share in the American experience was never seen and valued. In order for this to happen Blacks had to feel some confidence in the law’s protection, and be reassured that they would be playing on a level field.

The Chauvin verdict was a sign that the burden of doubt that has plagued Blacks, the doubt they carried since they were brought here as chattel only to serve as slaves, has being seriously challenged. The African American is an American and belongs here. Blacks, like the white immigrants who once came here, this is their home. African Americans want to build a life here.

The skills and resources existing in this population bring to our collective lives, a deeper understand of our humanity and its suffering. And looking to the future, equal justice will make America great for all of us, not great again, but great for the first time.

Ironically, the statement the verdict makes creates the possibility that has never have been the case before; that African-Americans are under the law, and indeed full participants in the American dream and under the law will be treated in ways consistent with any citizens rights.

Food Friday: New Peas | New Season

April 23, 2021 by Jean Sanders

We all like fresh, seasonal vegetables that have small carbon footprints. There is nothing sadder than a hot house tomato in the middle of winter. Enjoying freshly picked vegetables out of your own garden is pure bliss. And while it’s probably too late this year to plant your own peas, it is worth putting a note on your calendar to start a pea farm of your own next March. You can even start them in windowsill containers, so you’ll have more to enjoy than just grocery store basil plants.

On a trip to Charleston, South Carolina back in the days of travel and eating in restaurants, I had an early spring salad with snap peas, radishes, fennel, strawberries and lemon buttermilk vinaigrette. The addition of the snap peas was a revelation! I had never thought of adding peas to a salad. I have tossed snow peas into stir fry, and English peas into Fettucini Alfredo, but sugar snap peas cold in a salad, lightly bathed in buttermilk dressing? Genius. They were better than bacon-fried croutons! That tasty moment was almost as pleasant as memories of childhood, eating peas from the garden.

Tiny little snap pea pods are sweet and crunchy, unlike English peas, which need to be shelled. And snow peas, while you can eat them from stem to stern, have thinner shells and are flaccid, yet are quite deelish in their modest way. https://www.thespruce.com/garden-vs-snow-and-sugar-snap-1403487

I’ve been venturing back into the garden now that we don’t have to worry about a frost. I have planted some containers with tomatoes and basil plants, and have filled the raised bed with seeds of flowers that promise to be irresistible to hummingbirds and other pollinators. It’s too early right now to tell what is a precious sown wildflower seed, and what might be a pernicious weed. I am hoping that the blue jays don’t discover the row of sunflower seeds before they have a chance to germinate and take root.

Elsewhere in the yard I am using newspapers and mulch again. Last year I tried that combination and for the most part, the garden beds were fairly weed-free. (Sadly, there is one corner that lets the neighbor’s invasive ivy in to roam freely, but I am game for that fight. I want to have a nice, presentable middle class hydrangea bed.)

I love this newsprint/mulch concept – supporting our local (and national) press, and recycling, without contributing to landfill. I haven’t gone too radical because I have topped the newspaper with commercial garden center mulch, but you can skip that step if you don’t mind looking at the newspaper. (Mr. Sanders is much too conventional for that approach.) I just want to control the weeds without using RoundUp and I don’t want to be like another neighbor, who eschews RoundUp, but has her yard sprayed every couple of weeks for mosquito control. I am too fond of our birds. Even the thieving blue jays. https://www.bbg.org/news/using_newspaper_as_mulch

I’m thinking of light spring-y recipes while I am weeding and mulching. It can still be pretty nippy in the morning, yet I long to make lighter foods. No more meatloaf. No more chicken pot pie. Bring on the pasta primavera, with new peas and garden-fresh farmers’ market tomatoes, please. https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a48087/lemon-primavera-bowties-recipe/

This is more interesting than a salad plate of wilting iceberg lettuce. It is redolent with springtime: https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Fresh-Peas-With-Lettuce-and-Green-Garlic/

This transcendent pea compound butter is good on toast, or spread on cooked meats: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/spring-pea-butter-with-shallot-and-lemon

This recipe caused a stir in New York City a few years ago, and I think it will make for a very nice appetizer on the back porch this weekend. Green Pea Guacamole. Something light and crunchy, to go with our newest discovery – rosé Prosecco. https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/green-pea-guacamole.html

It is time to stop thinking of peas as something stodgy that we dig out of the freezer to be a side dish for winter-y meats and mashed potatoes. They are among the springiest of vegetables. Welcome, spring!

“We lived very simply – but with all the essentials of life well understood and provided for – hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy.”
Winston Churchill

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