Vermont is enjoying the prettiest summer of our five years up here. We had a very wet spring and the mountains are every shade of green nature can dream up. The soil in this high sweet valley is rich with the nutrients that slide down the mountains and land on our smallholding and so the flowers are as vibrant and rich as a tropical garden.

Midsummer. For me the middle of July has always meant halfway. Growing up in American public schools meant three months off in the summer and the middle of July meant you still had as much to go as you’d already had. But now living high in the northland the shaky thought dances across my mind that it is already halfway over. As an almost delusional optimist this negative view with so much gentle beauty around is startling. Is this negative upside down view another marker in middle age? Is it maybe about the times we are living in? Or was it just a moony morning blip that should be ignored and shelved an aberration?

Last night the stars were clear and bright. We could see all across the milky way and Cygnus the Swan flying along it. I thought about the stories I know about the stars, the ones the ancient told to their children so we could someday tell ours. Everybody knows about Orion the Hunter because his belt is so easy to find. But there is also the Great Bear in the north and Pegasus carrying Cassiopeia’s daughter away as she cries on the king’s shoulder. Last night we could even see Andromeda, the galaxy closest to our own. It is two hundred million light years away. That means the little shimmering light we see left that galaxy two hundred million years ago. That little twinkling light makes me feel like maybe I have a secret. It makes me feel connected to all that has come before…

Maybe the secret is to soak it all up and hold tight to this lovely mid summery warmth and this sparkly night sky. Maybe if I can just get enough I can hold onto to it through the long dark weeks of winter. Last winter was long and cold and hard. But what will this one be like? Oil prices are climbing as the dollar drops and there is no natural end in sight. Obama offered that gas could go to twelve dollars a gallon. America cannot just keep sitting this one out. Lots of us on the left want us to drive smaller more efficient cars. The guilt over America’s excess is brimming over. But I am just realizing I sort of like our excess. I think all those SUVs are a particular symbol of America’s optimism. One of the best things about America is how big we are capable of being. Innovation is what will save us. We need big ideas not smaller meaner ones. The stone age didn’t end because they ran out of rocks and the oil age is not likely to end because we run out of liquid fuel either. My car with its multiple cup holders, phone, and GPS looks nothing like the old Model T and yet its engine remains virtually unchanged. We need big incentive programs to kindle the imagination of the inventors and the entrepreneurs. We like our cars big and our houses bigger. This is not what’s wrong with America. It is what’s right with America. We are the land of cowboys and action. We dreamed up this whole democracy thing and we can dream up a new energy vision the same way.

“Soak up the sun, dodododo “…. goes the song. These green worries give it a whole new meaning…