Long Island Seasoning

Living simply on Long Island
Originally uploaded by Edu-Tourist

On July 2, Carla and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary at the Stony Brook University Hospital! Carla was pressed into service as an attending physician helping all of the new July 1 interns, while I was being observed expectantly by the Family Practice doctors as my wound grew and then finally began to heal from the healing power of nature and the intervenous antibiotics/saline solution. This is my first full summer living on Long Island, and as you can see from my flickr photostream, local exploration has already taken me to a variety of locations far from the beaten path. We think the wound may have been Lyme disease, resulting from a tick bite, superinfected by a few other bugs/germs as well. Perhaps we can consider this my "seasoning." As another young Stony Brook professor noted on our field trip to the Town of Brookhaven landfill - stills & video], you really aren't a full-fledged Long Islander until you've come down with the Lyme, named after a Connecticut town just north of the Sound where it was first identified.

As our society is forced to find ways to live more simply, perhaps there are lessons to be learned by exploring the emergence of Long Island's suburban landscape. There are insights to be gleaned right in my immediate neighborhood, such as this simple residence on Ringtail Lane in East Setauket/Stony Brook. Houses in this style date from one of the first major waves of suburbanization on Long Island; many of them have been modified and improved over the years. This house, however, retains much of the original rustic summer camp feel, with the utilitarian first floor and the more expansive second floor to catch the summer breezes.

While the summer temperatures in my neighborhood are moderated by the proximity to Long Island Sound, the humidity is very high, and it is not uncommon to get one's summer reading unexpectedly drenched from an unscheduled downpour.

Getting a sense of the political landscape on Long Island

I have recently moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, heavily Democratic, to more conservative Suffolk County, Long Island. Although Carla and I certainly aren't fully moved in yet, I am taking the opportunity to become acquainted with some of the local communities. One thing that disturbs me is the xenophobic orientation of many residents. I see this particularly strongly in the organized resistance to President Barak Obama's efforts to reform our health care system. Although I was unable to attend any of the town meetings because of the move, I have heard a great deal about them through the local media. Up close analysis becomes available through YouTube clips such as the following, shot before and during a town meeting in Setauket, Long Island. On the other side of Stony Brook University from Port Jefferson Station, this is an old community - one of the beauty spots of Long Island. But as you can see, it is also becoming politically polarized over the issue of health care reform.