I hope that everyone had a good time at the Grand Marais Lions Club Fisherman’s Picnic. I know I did. I just wish I had more time for catching up with friends and family. Last week I whined about the need for name tags for all the people who return for Fisherman’s Picnic that I don’t recognize. This week I’m going to whine about not having the time to talk to these folks once I’ve figured out who they are!
I was tickled when my friend Nancy of Lutsen—who I did recognize—jokingly introduced herself. She said she didn’t have a nametag, so she had to just tell me who she was. We talked for just a few minutes and then I had to dash off to the Fish Toss and we didn’t really get a chance to catch up.
That is the way it was all weekend. I got to be a bingo caller in the American Legion bingo tent, which was a lot of fun. But it meant not getting to talk to people. There is not much opportunity between numbers, and even the intermissions between games are taken up encouraging passersby to pop into the tent to play a few games. I did see my friend Debbie, home for a visit from Anchorage, Alaska, but I was only able to wave hello.
I ran into my friend Tom from Tait Lake when I was on my way to the Sven & Ole’s pickled herring and pizza eating contests. I saw my cousins Tressie and Nader as I was taking pictures of the tractor pull event. I had to stop mid-conversation with my friends Chuck and Marcy from Tom Lake to go get a photo of the $10,000 grand prize winner. And so on.
It’s a little frustrating to have all these wonderful friends and family members to visit with, but not having the time! I would wish for another day of Fisherman’s Picnic, but with as busy we all are with the various events, I think that would kill us.
Better to just enjoy the little snippets of time we have with one another, I guess.
It’s a little like the effort all of us who live here have to make to enjoy our beautiful surroundings. I can’t count how many times I heard someone say over recent festival weekends—“I wish I lived here. It’s so peaceful and relaxing.”
And I, like so many folks who live here year round, laugh at the joke. Most of us felt that way at one time. When I lived away from Cook County for 20-plus years, I always enjoyed vacationing here. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I couldn’t wait to move back.
Now that I am here in Cook County, living and working and volunteering and spending time with friends and family, it’s not so peaceful and relaxing. It’s incredibly hectic and sometimes frustrating. Everyone is working really hard to survive economically. There are over a hundred worthy causes that want and deserve volunteer time and energy. There are political concerns to address and public meetings to attend. There is fun stuff too—plays and concerts and book signings and more. But even the fun stuff can tire a person out.
So those of us who live here just smile when we hear a visitor talk about how lucky we are to live in such a peaceful and relaxing place. We know that it isn’t really peaceful and relaxing.
Although today, for a moment, it was. I planned to meet some friends for lunch at Dockside Fish Market—including the friend I was only able to wave at in the Bingo tent. As I walked from the News-Herald office to Dockside, I watched the sunlight sparkling on the water of the Grand Marais harbor and on the granite boulders of the breakwall. The bright blue sky and puffy white clouds, the seagulls soaring and the ducks bobbing, the billowing sailboat sails and the sturdy old lighthouse brought a wave of… well…a wave of peace and relaxation.
It didn’t last long. I had to hurry through lunch with my dear friends and get back to the office to sort through the hundreds of pictures News-Herald staff took and readers shared of Fisherman’s Picnic for this issue of the paper.
But on that short stroll, I was reminded that we are lucky. We are very lucky that we live where we do. We are lucky that friends and family come back to see us, even if we don’t have enough time to share with them. We are lucky that they find peace and relaxation when they visit.
And we are especially lucky that on quick work breaks or between meetings or after events, we can spend a snippet of time on the shore of Lake Superior where we can catch a wave of peace and relaxation.
Home— that blessed word,
which opens to the human
heart the most perfect glimpse
of Heaven, and helps to carry it
thither, as on an angel’s wings.
Lydia Maria Child
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