Lessons of Nantucket

from page to them that they can’t really avoid us. We will witness the drama, be it in their backyard or at the Seagrille. It’s all there.

And we can’t avoid our neighbors. I can’t break their windows this January with my peanut butter rat-bombs because I will see them every day this summer. I will know what brought the swamp to their reclaimed oak flooring and their granite counter tops. I will know what brought the contractors out next April and will feel ever so ashamed when I see them in the grocery store with Skippy Peanut Butter in my basket. Just as the accelerator can’t free my neighbor, the calendar can’t free me. I have no car to hide in either, nor any hedge to hide behind. We both stand naked in our outdoor showers.

That’s Nantucket.

It’s a common wealth, joint stock society where we cannibals must look out for these christians. And vice versa. We both need each other for a summer free from drama. They will want to pick blackberries with their friends. We will want to park our cars in the driveway. Off island, their rights would be ennumerated and assumed. Here, we should consider what it must be like in the other house right now, at two in the morning, when Rihanna is back at it again.

I feel the guilty pull of the common wealth when I see the bicyclists going the wrong way. This weekend, two women, well into their cups, went rolling the wrong way down Main Street on a tandem. They stopped every ten yards, giggled, then rolled for another painful ten yards, before coming to a hard stop and giggling again. Eventually, the spectators pointed out the traffic laws, and the women went teetering back to the tent.

While I never rode a tandem or wore heels that high, I certainly tooled my Univega at high speeds up the one-way streets near Five Corners until I nearly planted myself in the hood of my Department Head. She didn’t need to say anything. I was able to figure out the traffic rules myself. So, I forgive the drunken girls and hope that they are able to learn the lessons of Nantucket faster than I did.