For the second time in a week, I got the Wordle on the second guess. I’m really getting lucky with my first guesses.

Wordle 515 2/6

🟩🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I am not living or working on Mackinac Island now…except in my mind. Hopefully, you have had a similar experience — you travel to some place you enjoy or you have some experience you treasure, then you re-live it in your head for quite awhile after the moment. Maybe even call up specific moments from that time and place when you need them to de-stress. That’s where I am these days. Not at Mackinac, but not completely in lower Michigan either.

There’s no way to fully explain what I did or why it was so memorable, so needed, or so life-giving, but I’ll try.

For five and a half months, I worked for Mackinac State Historic Parks on Mackinac Island. My title was Guest Services Representative which means I worked at Fort Mackinac selling tickets and souvenirs, at the Visitor’s Center answering guest’s questions and selling souvenirs, at the Biddle House (Native American Museum) and Blacksmith Shop, and at the Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum. Some days, I gave my colleagues breaks at those places too. The variety of jobs and locations helped make the days (and the summer) fly by. I had not worked full time for six years (since I retired from teaching), so that was a transition — not difficult, but borderline-routine in the way full time employment can be. Except that I was on “the island” and everyday is a good day on the island.

I think highlights may be the best way to convey this experience:

• I arrived on Mackinac on April 27th and by the end of the month, I tested positive for COVID. I spent five days in isolation, then five more wearing a mask everywhere. It was a crazy way to start. However, it wiped that possibility off my list for the rest of the summer (in my mind) and I didn’t wear a mask at all after that.
• Suzette, Alice, and Liz trained me and then Courtney, Suzette, and (later) Ava were available via text or phone if I had a question…of which I had many during the summer. Most of the questions had to do with selling tickets to the fort; there are at least two dozen ways to get into the fort and many times that gray area between them necessitated a text or call. All the people I worked for (and with) were absolute gems — always willing to help, never judging, and friendly to the nth degree. I had to count my cash drawer at the beginning and end of every shift. I never knew there were so many different ways to count to 300. Usually, I balanced…fortunately.
• All the State Park workers lived at Mission House. Living in an almost-200 year old historic building was a trip all by itself: uneven floors, dinky bedrooms (though I did have my own), and stories of the basement being inhabited by ghosts made it interesting. Most of the other workers were in their twenties and used vocabulary that was foreign to me. I enjoyed bringing up to them that not everything was “fair enough” and began writing down as much of their vocabulary as I could. They were a very social group and welcomed this old guy, thankfully. For the first few weeks I had no idea that they were getting together — they used SnapChat to communicate…so I eventually became a snapchatter. The cookouts, potlucks, swim times on “hot” days, Grand nights of dancing, Rum bar getaways, and talks on the porch were priceless.

• The island is a community of caring people. I felt welcomed in so many ways. Since it’s so expensive to eat on the island (the only market, Doud’s, can be pricey…though I shopped there dozens of times), local folks made it doable for island employees. Free dinners were available on certain nights of the week at several locations throughout most of the summer: the Mackinac Arts Council had community dinners and music a handful of times (Eastern European, Jamaican, Upper Peninsula fare…), St. Anne’s Church on Wednesdays, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts late in the week (often with a kickball game), and the Bible Church on Fridays. It helped so much — financially, emotionally, and socially.
• Exploring the island became a mission of sorts. I found trails, both walking and on my bike, that I had never seen before. By myself and with new friends, hiking the island was a joy. Sometimes spiritual (like sunrises) and sometimes surprising…I couldn’t get enough.
• I overheard many humorous comments during my time on the island. Here are some:
  • the young boy, crouched on the sidewalk, who said to his parent, “You mean it’s going to smell like this the whole time?!”
  • during the yacht race craziness, I overheard “I put a new element on the raycor…it didn’t help.”
  • I was working at the Sutler Store in Fort Mackinac and a parent ducked her head into the doorway and said “We’re not going in there, that’s a trap…that’s a trap!” The eyes on her young daughter were popping out.
  • I was on my bike, riding on the west, outer edge of the island. There was a worker cleaning the outside of the street lamps. He was up on a ladder with a swiffer. Somebody came by and said something like… “Lookin’ spiffy…how you doin’?” The worker guy said “I’m not good. This is shit man.”
  • I was walking at night with some young friends and one of them looked up and said “these are some nice ass stars.” I said “Yes, the stars do have nice asses.”
  • Park-Ops Emily (we had five Emilys living in the building) said “teamwork makes the dream work” then added… “Don’t use that in a poem because it’d be really corny.”
  • Ava said, referring to her aunt’s situation, “the house closing took five-ever” and that made so much sense to me.
  • Our first house manager, Justin, had a way with words…
    • “how can you not love a sloth with five squeakers?”
    • “live your best fucking life.”
  • At the Visitor’s Center, people were always asking if we had a map of the island. This one woman with an English accent changed it up by asking “Have you a map of the island?” which I found hilarious.
  • In October, a woman used her Heritage Pass to get into the fort (it’s a family pass for the season) that she had bought in May. It was fun to recognize my own handwriting on her pass — I had sold it to her.

I can’t say this next aspect was a highlight. But it happened and it was important. I was on the island partly to check it off my bucket list — working a summer on Mackinac Island. Also, though, it was a getaway from the divorce process. After 38 years of marriage, I left Judy in February. We had tried counseling and I felt it helped with communication a little. But we had grown apart and I felt it was time to move on. It was not an easy decision but it was a necessary one for me. On the island, I attended a zoom courtroom. We closed on our house with me getting some documents notarized at a bank on the island. Those aspects of my time there were other-worldly, emotional, and odd.

And then, a female friend from my past found me on Facebook Messenger. That was a bonus from the summer. A kismitty, hopeful miracle of sorts.

I did a lot of journaling and wrote some poems on the island. Also, thanks to Robin Boswell, we published a book for teachers right at the end of the summer. It’s on Amazon now and will be available at Schuler Books soon. Please check it out and share it with a new teacher who needs some encouragement.

I do plan to go back to Mackinac…maybe even next summer. Not to work, but maybe to volunteer (if you volunteer four hours at a State Park site, you can stay overnight at the Mission House) or just be a tourist again.

If you have more time and would like to see my photos from the summer, here’s a link.

I’m not really in a writing mood. Here are some videos I’ve enjoyed lately — some are funny, some are interesting, some are good for dancing or singing along with…

• Dana Carvey impersonates President Biden
• MSU vs. Oakland University basketball highlights from this month’s game that was not available on local channels…only ESPN+.
• Mackinac Island in the Winter from a few years ago.
• MSU vs. U of M football highlights from this fall. Adrel Adams, a former student of mine did well for U of M. This game is such a big deal around here that a nearby house had the final score up in Christmas lights this week.
• The book, Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman (of A Man Called Ove fame) was one of my favorite reads of the year. A Netflix limited series version of the book is due out this month. Here’s the trailer which looks promising.
• If you enjoy hiking, mountains, or rainbows, check out this video from Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park.
• David Byrne’s American Utopia is an amazing dance album. It’s also a mind-blowing production on HBO Max. If you can’t access either of those things, here’s a taste.
• An Evening with John Gorka is some beautiful folk music that I highly recommend.
• Continuing with the music theme, here’s a link to the Earl Nelson Singers Soundcloud page; not a video, but some great gospel and spiritual music.
• The best movie I’ve seen lately is The French Dispatch, directed by Wes Anderson.

If you have videos that you recommend, please put them in the comments. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

July 2021 haikus

Fell asleep to fireworks;
Late-night bluejay-like annoyance
burst through closed windows

July the fifth bliss —
simple silence everywhere,
Sunshine explodes forth

Empty bird feeder
longs for company, until
squirrel hangs hoping

Bumblebee on screen
doesn’t move for days and days
then gone; curious

Are bird-feeders filled
on a kismetty schedule
across this whole town?

Mosquito inside
gets highest priority,
heightens awareness

I become Zen-like,
quiet myself, listening,
waiting for the buzz

Premeditated
and strategic, this murder
is sweet victory

Heat I can handle
but humidity sucks eggs:
air-conditioning!

Inflation hits haiku
Climate changing, pandemic life
makes haiku 6-8-6

It is difficult these days to get a handle on what’s going on in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Being Armenian-American, I feel both concerned about it and disconnected from it. Disconnected because the conflict is not reported on regularly here in the states and I don’t make an effort to check in on it. Concerned, too, though because of the loss of human lives on both sides and the threat of more involvement from Turkey or Russian escalating the conflict.

Here’s a bit of history if you need it. The following information and the map, below, comes from a website called Political Geography Now. There’s more history on the website if you are interested.

“What is Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh?
The status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region is disputed. The UN and its member countries generally consider it part of Azerbaijan, but separatists there declared independence during the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the area has been ruled separately from Azerbaijan for over 25 years now.

Originally calling itself the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region’s self-proclaimed government now officially prefers the name Republic of Artsakh – “Artsakh” being an Armenian-language alternate name for the area. Founded by culturally-Armenian locals who didn’t want to be part of Azerbaijan, self-ruled Artsakh is heavily integrated with neighboring Armenia as far as military defense and day-to-day administration. But it still technically considers itself an independent country, and Armenia maintains a formal separation, neither recognizing Artsakh’s independence nor officially making it part of Armenia.”

Recently, according to some sources an Armenian jet was shot down over Armenian airspace by a Turkish F-16 fighter. Both sides are accusing each other of attacks. I feel conflicted about Armenia’s ownership of the disputed land but know that when both sides feel like it belongs to them, a peaceful resolution is far away. I will continue to keep an eye on news from the region and pray for an illusive and needed peaceful solution.

Isolation has given me time to put some of my poems together. I’ve self-published My Name is Aram, Too through Schuler Books press in Grand Rapids!

The title is a reference to one of my favorite books of all time, My Name is Aram by William Saroyan. It’s a collection of short stories, not poems, and Saroyan set it in Fresno, CA, not mid-Michigan; I love his playful writing style and the Armenian community he created.

Here’s the cover that our niece, Megan, drew (the individual drawings refer to poems in the book):

Nice job, Megan!

It’s meant to look similar to title art Don Freeman created for William Saroyan’s book My Name is Aram:

If Freeman’s work looks familiar, he’s also the artist that drew the cover of the Corduroy books and Rainbow of My Own, among many others.

Here are some options if you want to get a book:

* It’s available online at the Schuler Books website.

* After Wednesday, Schuler Books in Okemos at the Meridian Mall will have copies available.

* I do believe in bartering, so if you want to stop by our house, I have copies. (close family and friends, please wait so I can give you a copy…I have many)

* If you are very patient, I will probably post a pdf of the book on this blog in a year or two.