Military affairs writer - two time Pulitzer Prize winner - Tom Ricks explains why he and his wife gave up on D.C. and moved to Maine.
His description of wintering in Maine captures just how we feel about our spot. - gwc
Babylon Revisited: Melancholy Thoughts After a Short Trip to Washington, D.C. – Foreign Policy
by Thomas E. Ricks
The more time we spent in the new house, the more we liked it. And while in Washington, we always pined for Maine. One January, as we were packing up to leave Maine, we decided instead to spend the winter there, and see how it went.
We loved it. The summers are lovely, but there also is great beauty in the fall’s sunsets, the winter’s storms, and spring’s mists. I’ve counted nine shades of green from a spot on one of my favorite walks — in lichen, two mosses, a fir, a spruce, some granite, two types of seaweed, and the translucent sea. I revel in the panorama of nature. Almost every day, I see a wild animal — fox, deer, seal, heron, eagle, osprey, and so on. I follow the phases of the moon, partly because the huge tides affect how I use my boat, but one side effect is that when I awake in the night I can tell roughly what time it is simply by judging the angle of the moon shadows. I don’t have an alarm clock, I have chickadees and doves. In Washington, I felt every day was like climbing into the boxing ring for another few rounds. In Maine I look forward to my day with eagerness.
So, for the last several years, we’ve lived in Maine year-round. We enjoy the community here, especially in the winter, when many of our friends, preoccupied in the summer with taking care of visitors, or feeding or housing or teaching them, have time to socialize.
