I think part of Maria’s genius is that she not only makes art, she creates it and invents it, in her quite and very unassuming way. She got this idea to create new kinds of potholders using the vintage handkerchiefs she has been collecting from all over the country. She brought this one into show me yesterday, and I was struck by it’s grace, artistry and originality. I asked her this morning if she had any idea how beautiful this modest potholder is, and she said no, she had no idea.
My friend Scott Carrino isn’t really a wussy man, he camps in the woods, chops trees down, teaches Tai Chi, builds houses and repairs things. I think he even changes his own tires. I am a wussy man, but I know it takes a real man to pause in the middle of maple syrup sugaring and write the lyrics for a song. We had our second round sugaring yesterday, the sap is really running today as the weather finally warms up a bit. In the midst of steaming and tossing logs and measuring and stirring and tasting, Scott and I sat down with Red in the Pompanuck Farm Sugar House to write the lyrics of the song together. Scott is a musician among other things, he plays the guitar and sings.
I think it will be a terrific song, it’s about how sugaring marks the first harvest of the new year, how it brings him into the woods, where he sometimes fled or was driven as a young man, and where he found and defined himself. These times in the sugar house are special, for me as well, the woods have a different meaning, but the natural world is precious to me, part of my life, and writing with Scott is a precious experience. I like the Wussy Man’s Sugar House, it combines the old world and the new and reminds me that real men open up to one another, love one another, are good friends to each other, encourage and support the women in their loves and love them every day, and write songs and poems together.
