Sarasota, Mayors, et al

We are in Sarasota in a place called Pelican Cove, a kind of Utopian kibbutz-like

community,even though of course there are problems.  This is Florida after all.  Home

of Ron DeSantis.

It’s a place where saying gay and trans and reading Art Spiegleman has serious

repercussions. But Pelican Cove is a happy bubble, not unlike the bubble where we

normally live.This community is full of an unusually high percentage of interesting

people, teachers and social workers and writers and thinkers and many art makers.  At

the swimming pool 52 steps (literally) from our friend Mark’s apartment, where he

generously lets us stay for a week every year,  two people in bathing suits were reading

Yuval Harari. 

Life, no matter how and where, has its contradictions.  Even though Pelican Cove is

full of radicals, progressives, and liberals too, there’s a man in a uniform in a booth by

the door.  In fact, this is a gated community, and although I’ve always sworn never

ever to live anywhere gated, here I am.  And not only that, I actually love it here. I

ignore the gate, the way I sometimes ignore other things that go against what I

believe.  I have to suspend judgement for a week to be on vacation.

When we were in Mexico a few weeks ago, we asked everyone we met what they

thought about the President, and about Claudia Sheinbaum, the progressive Jewish

woman mayor of Mexico City who may even be the next President herself.

Although I went to the city envious of a place with a progressive woman mayor,

no one we asked –workers everywhere, taxi drivers, friends of friends – no one had

much good to say. 

It’s always hard to understand a place that isn’t home.  And to be able to accept

what we can’t change.  That’s even harder now.  Especially for so many of of us who

have been trying in thousands of ways for years.

Sarasota is just one example.  What I love here – Pelican Cove, friends, even a few

good relatives, are just one part of the Sarasota equation.  Still there are excellent

independent bookstores – one with a large poetry collection, a very good

indie movie house, beautiful beaches, and of course a lot of food.   We don’t

really know what life is like anywhere here, except in this good bubble.

view from our balcony

Fifteen percent of the city is black.  And 3,000 people are Amish and Mennonite.

Erik Arroyo, the city’s youngest ever mayor, is a 31 year old man from the Dominican

Republic. He’s a conservative Republican.  Many of the well educated people of

Pelican Cove don’t know his name, though they live here year round, though they

define themselves as political.  I’ve come late to the notion of compromise. 

Some people say there’s a time in life (and maybe that time is now) where you

step back a little.  Stop trying to change the world  (maybe pick one thing, or two) and

enjoy each day with gratitude.  If there ever was a place to try out this idea, it’s

Pelican Cove.

Love to all,

Esther

PS   Stay tuned for our first live Alte event in forever.  In New York City on Monday April 3.  Wine, poetry, music.  Details very soon.