A re-post from 2007 -
A brief break from my vacation in Dark Harbor on Islesboro on Penobscot Bay (there is no cable out here, and happily no TV either. Primitive dial-up internet, but once a week is plenty for that hassle) to highlight this piece by Jonah Goldberg at NRO called "Isn't that Special?"
I am always pleased to see folks knock the concept of "self esteem." What we humans need to aspire to is Self Respect. Self respect is hard-earned, or never fully-earned, but a worthy goal. A quote from the Goldberg piece:
These investments in self-esteem paid off royally, according to a report, “Egos Inflating Over Time.” Jean Twenge of San Diego State University and a team of psychologists combed through the answers of 16,475 college students nationwide who took the Narcissistic Personality Inventory survey between 1982 and 2006. Their conclusion: Today’s American youth are the most self-absorbed since we’ve studied the subject. “We need to stop endlessly repeating, ‘You’re special,’ and having children repeat that back,” Twenge told the Associated Press. “Kids are self-centered enough already.”
Read the whole thing - link above.
Meanwhile, we will assemble the routine lobster, corn, potato and steamer clam dinner, but with a giant pot of hand-plucked Maine mussels also, cooked Italian-style in the kitchen, with garlic bread on the side.
We'll do the lobsters, cod, potato and clams on the beach, in a sand hole on hot rocks and coals under a pile of seaweed and sand - a true clambake. We wrap the hunks of cod (salt and pepper first) in rockweed (our main seaweed up here), and it tastes much better than lobster, in my opinion.
Family-picked Blueberry cobbler for dessert. Yes, we did bring a mini wine cellar with us, and plenty of fine champagne too.
The drinks provide that instant and unearned self-esteem; the harvesting of the fine wild foods provides the self respect, Maine-style. Yes, we fished at 4 am this morning, and fetched some fine cod with clam as bait. Saw a whale, too.
Images: Upper photo is of Islesboro. Lower borrowed from our friend neoneo, because I do not do cameras on vacation.
