BRAD WOODGER

508-627-4216

(ibwsgolf@aol.com)

Kim has decided that she needs fewer possessions now that she has her new cat, Baby/Buddy/Bobby/Angel. B/B/B/A has been with her for almost a year now, and Kim finds that he embodies many of the joys that her clothes, trinkets, keepsakes and tchotchkes previously dragged around with them. He is an adorable, portable package of good feelings. This is fortuitous as both she and I are paring down our lives’ accoutrements. I’m guessing one could take either road at the mid-life intersection: desperately-cling-to-accumulation avenue, or let-it-go drive.

I think Chappy makes it easier to let go. Firstly, she doesn’t suffer gladly fools of control. One learns rather quickly to allow Chappy to give and take as she likes. There is no hoarding of beautiful days, cool weather, crisp, crusty snow — she takes it all with her. Daily. Weekly. Yearly. We can gather all we like in our memory of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch, but that is the only real storage we have for Chappy.

And nature provided us our beloved Angel/Baby (I’ll shorten it to his nickname), Chappy puts on display, hourly, a myriad of miracles of mirth. Even the fly zipping around in crazy zigzags in my small room seems happy. Of course I know that every chirp, each rustle of grape leaf doesn’t portend wonder and joy, but there seems to be a wrinkle of the purpose of life in each stimulus. Joy. Wonder.

The nights are still warm. I remain atop the wool of my Hudson Bay. But the water has cooled. With alacrity. Falling from the paddleboard is truly refreshing these days.

I paddled back from the Filleys’ shack a few weeks back at sunset. I hugged the shore so as not to be foolish in my adventure, but ignored the Jaws music playing on the wind. Neighbors were out on docks tying up dinghies, and out on porches just tying one on. I remained the lone human on the water however. Just birds, fish, crustaceans, salt and me. I looked at the houses on the bluff and felt the comfort and warmth of their lit interiors. And I looked at the water below me and felt the comfort of it’s strangeness. An inviting oddity. And for the first time in my life, I felt completely unafraid of the water at night. That fin? A passing mako heading home. Just like me.

In other news: If you have any old computers, printers, hi-fi or electrical appliances large or small, take note that a benefit Electronic Disposal Day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 1, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, across from the high school. A portion of the fee, which varies by appliance, will help Community Services.