Going Away and Coming Home
For nearly three weeks this August my wife and I were away, far away, from Laguna Beach. First, we flew to Boston and then drove a rental car to Pittsfield, Mass., where we visited the historic home, known as Arrowhead, of one of my favorite American writers, Herman Melville. Afterward, we drove to Lake Sunapee, N.H., to attend the wedding of one of our godchildren. Lastly, we returned our rental car to Logan Airport and flew to Geneva, from where our younger son, Todd (Laguna born and bred and of late a French citizen), met and drove us to his family’s home in a scenic valley in the Alps near Chamonix.
Naturally, the highlight of our time away was reconnecting with our French family, especially our two young grandchildren. As rich and wonderful as our family time was (and the oh-la-la gourmet meals we savored), I experienced another benefit from this time in New England and abroad: a wider perspective on the environmental and political issues of our time.
In New England, for example, my wife and I saw few identifiable electric vehicles on the highways and backroads we drove. Here in tiny Laguna, by contrast, Teslas and Rivians are seen up and down Coast Highway, sometimes three or four at a single stoplight. More positively, our road trip through parts of New England revealed a fair number of solar panel installations on homes and other buildings. None of this detracted from the natural setting. The lush, heavily wooded hillsides of the Berkshires, for example, which will soon be resplendent with autumnal foliage, were as serenely beautiful as ever.
By contrast, Alpine France’s sublime beauty struck me with its verticality and wonderland qualities, much like our High Sierras. Ascending by gondolas up to 12,605-foot Aiguille du Midi, in addition to altitude-induced nausea, I felt I was perched atop a cloud-studded world. From this vantage point, I could see what remains of colossal but fast-melting glaciers in addition to the pinnacles of France and Italy.
Our French family members are avid skiers and cyclists and have told us how shortened winters have hurt the recreational economy in their region. Not only are our French family members concerned about climate change, especially as unusually hot summer days kept us indoors on many afternoons, but the related concern about America’s November election is much on their minds.
So much is the case that our French family followed televised coverage of Chicago’s Democratic National Convention. Our French daughter-in-law, Pauline, for example, assured me that Michelle Obama’s speech was better than Barack’s. Pauline’s parents have a daily subscription to Le Monde, where they follow global and, particularly, American politics. On Aug. 8 that publication ran an article very favorable to Kamala Harris titled: “Kamala Harris, a Californian conquering the East,” which I read in an English translation. Accordingly, Harris’s pastor, Amos Brown, of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, was a former student of Martin Luther King, Jr. Reverend Brown sermonized on August 4 that congregants need to “get ready” to “make sure that America will be ready right now, . . . for a black woman to be president of the United States.” Oddly, I learned more from this deeply researched Le Monde article about Harris than from newspaper coverage in the United States.
While my wife and I were away and getting a French perspective on American politics, extreme weather caused rampant flooding in Connecticut, wildfires incinerated parts of the Far West, and the American Medical Association reported that record numbers of Americans died this past year of heat-related causes. So, I’ve come home determined to take the most effective action to address the climate crisis. For me, that action will be aimed at urging voters to prioritize climate action at the ballot box because without a livable environment, what else really matters?
Tom Osborne, with his wife, Ginger, co-leads the Laguna chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. tomosborne@cox.net.
