FROM THE MAYOR’S OFFICE: The Language of Care

From the Mayor’s Office
November 24, 2021
“The Language of Care”

 

At this time of year, Thanksgiving, I especially take stock of what I’m grateful for, of course family, friends, health, wellbeing but what I’m also most thankful for is the place we live. I have written of this often, but it is the thing that energizes me and that envelopes us and should never be taken for granted. The Warwick Valley, it’s Villages and natural places, its orchards and farms, the lakes, ponds and streams, the cultivated places, the wildlife, the patterns of nature, always leaves me with a sense of awe.

In Alice Waters’ book, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto, she writes, “When we see something utterly beautiful, we enter a state of awe. Beauty can startle you; it breaks down the illusory barriers between us and nature. Beauty is out of the realm of human control or understanding, and it has a transcendent universality they can’t be ignored.”

Maybe this is why we live here? It is being close to nature and surrounded by beauty. She also describes the meaning and value of beauty,

“We know how beauty affects our happiness, but we haven’t examined how beauty helps us survive….Beauty is not only a way to awaken our aesthetics and our own senses: it is a way to decide whether networks are functioning correctly, whether alive and healthy and fertile. Beauty in nature is one of the outer manifestations that stewardship is happening – that land is being cared for and protected. Beauty is the language of care, yes, but it’s more than that, too. It is the outcome of care.”

What wise words and surely describes the result of the long-term efforts that have preserved our Valley. In this time of uncertainty, and often fear of what may lie ahead, we share the solace of this beautiful place. It is a profound testament of vision that has secured our future and a legacy for our children. We are blessed.

On behalf of the Village Board of Trustees I wish you and your family a very joyful and delicious Thanksgiving!

The evening of Sunday, November 28th begins the eight nights of the observation of Hanukkah. There will be a Menorah lighting in Lewis Park at 4:45 p.m. All are invited. In the season of thanks is the celebration of the miracle of light, the overcoming of desecration and the cleansing and anointing of something valued and sacred.

 

On behalf of the Village Board of Trustees I wish all our Jewish Friends and Neighbors a happy and blessed Hanukkah.