Thursday morning, One of my ancestors might have been a common foot-soldier in service of some Medieval nobleman.  In my imagination I am back in time, re-living his life, standing in place on a castle wall.  The crossbow is heavy.  I look over the countryside from the high vantage point to see the tents and smoke from fires of an army encampment.  A hostile force is waiting, waiting until I and my besieged compatriots suffering from diminishing food and water, without leadership, desperate and impatient, can no longer hold these walls.  The castle would be in Scotland.  I think Scotland is the land of my ancestors origin. 

Today, I feel as if I am on a castle wall, able to envision the future.  I read these lines in this morning’s The Daily, an email update received from the New York Times.

The virus should eventually recede, so long as a vaccine arrives. But there is no vaccine in development for climate change. Which means the American West is now living through a grim version of the future, in which global warming exacts a rising toll on daily life.

And these telling lines.

Charlie Warzel, a Times Opinion writer based in Montana, has argued that this extreme weather would receive even more attention if it were happening on the East Coast, where the nation’s capital is and much of the media is based. “I’ve wondered what coverage of climate would be like if the East really experienced how apocalyptic these feel,” he wrote.

On the positive side of the ledger, our “turtle farm,” which we’ve watched for the summer months, in the aftermath of weeks of dry, hot weather — produced baby turtles following a night of rain.  We were lucky to see them right after hatching, as they made their way to the creek which flows into the marsh at the back of our property. 

The baby snapping turtles were the size of a quarter.  Good fortune deserves credit for our experience of the “new life” of these tiny snapping turtles.  I understand that the snapping turtle has remained for 90 million years, and is regarded as the ultimate survivor.