In 1981 a staffer at Friends of the River called to ask if I would be a volunteer guide on a trip meant to sweeten a mail list exchange with California politician Tom Hayden. “He might bring a special guest with him.” The staffer dangled the enticing carrot, daring me to refuse. At that time […]
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Lynne Benoit-Vachon, Wells: Weathering a family adventure in Maine’s great outdoors
The lakes and mountains of western Maine were home in the 1970s. My energetic parents kept my brother, my sister and me busy with outdoor activities through the changing seasons. We did everything together from a rustic camp they built on the shores of Long Pond, five miles south of Rangeley. We fished, swam, canoed, […]
Susan Davis Doughty, Scarborough: Grit made news our family business
What comes to mind when you hear the word “grit”? Gravelly dirt or maybe determination? When I hear the word “grit,” I think of the smell of printer’s ink from Linotype machines and the clack-clack of teletype spitting out the latest news from Associated Press or UPI. I hear current events at the dinner table. […]
Peter Vose, Falmouth: The friend who didn’t let adversity get in the way of joy
Kim Mathews and I had much in common: Both our fathers were Maine school superintendents, we both majored in English at small Maine liberal arts colleges – he at Bates and I at Colby – and, in the early 1980s, we were both teaching at Gray-New Gloucester High School. But we did not share this: […]
Sally Connolly, Scarborough: Giving students roots and wings
Teaching is planting seeds in young minds. Learning colors, counting and ABCs lifts the sprout up above the ground. Changes come quickly; standing, walking, talking; each day more exciting than the last – the seedling begs eagerly for its next lesson and growth spurt. We hustle to enrich the soil, be it grit or soft […]
Karin Olsen Gamache, Georgetown: Surviving occupation, then making their way in a new land
Grit. I can’t imagine anyone reflecting on grit without thinking about what is happening in Ukraine right now. Their incredible strength and resilience in the face of a brutal dictator are beyond belief. We all are holding our collective breath and hoping this needless war will end soon. On a more personal level, my next […]
Roland Beaudoin, Falmouth: My swim for survival to Mackworth Island
On June 4, 1985, grit or persistence came to my rescue. My small motorized 14-foot boat was anchored at Falmouth Town Landing. My plan was to take a ride into Portland Harbor and putter around. The local harbormaster was a retired Coast Guardsman; for some reason, when I arrived, he described how bodies looked when […]
Kay Wheeler, Raymond: Rescuing a skunk, avoiding the funk
“Come on, you can do this.” How often have do we say those words to our children? Where does bravery come from? Where do we get “grit”? For boys, we think sports make them stronger, with more grit. For girls, I’m not sure at this point. Is bravery physical? Is grit the power to punch […]
Gregory Greenleaf, Harpswell: When the going gets tough
This is a story where I put myself in a good light and show my true grit in a tough situation. It is Monday, Dec. 12, 1994, 8:59 p.m., and Allison, my girlfriend-future wife, and I are in my apartment in New York City preparing to watch Dan Marino and my Miami Dolphins play against […]
Gregory Greenleaf, Harpswell: Murphy was an optimist
Some laws are meant to be broken. Some laws are meant to break us. Take Stapp’s Ironical Paradox and Murphy’s Law, for example. Murphy’s Law sagely observes that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. If you haven’t heard of Stapp’s Ironical Paradox, recognize it possesses even greater insight into the human condition: “The universal […]