Sunday, the day after the flood. 

On July 4th we attempted a short road trip to Ottowa, Illinois. Ottowa is a small river town. It features The Lone Buffalo by Tangled Roots Brewing Company, an excellent gastro pub. The restaurant is spacious, and the menu is superior. No doubt we are not the only ones enticed to return to Ottowa by this business. Also there is Washington Square Park where a Lincoln – Douglass debate took place on August 21st 1858. We always find a reading bench near one of the monuments memorializing this verbal contestation between the two men – a conflict of ideas culminating with war, three short years later.

To circle back to my story, we were turned back from our drive to Ottowa by a deluge so heavy that we were forced to leave the highway. Some shelter for our vehicle was found on a partially paved farm implement path between two corn fields. We had to get off of the main highway though. Then the concern that our vehicle would be immobilized by fast rising water, trapping us on the access road… 

All is well though, as witness that I am writing this to you. The take-a-way for me, climate warming is by no means a untethered “woke” notion. Concentration of heat transforms benevolent nature into a implacable and dangerous foe. Anyone dismissive of climate warming is your enemy.

---

The images are of “Jacob Klein”, crimson crowned bee balm. Every year I look forward to the arrival of these blossoms.