I was in the cold and bright of the far north over the past two weeks; instead of computer and ipod, I was consumed by constant daylight and the sound of ice collapsing into the sea.
Afternoon in Ilulissat, Greenland
It took time to accept that my electronic feed was gone and there was nothing else but the cold world all around.
Night in Ilulissat, Greenland
The Hamptons is often portrayed as a place of affluent delight.
Portraits hanging in a Hamptons diner
However you only have to dig for a moment to find something else lurking beneath.
Deer carcass half buried at a Hamptons beach
The story of The Ark has drifted briefly into the Pacific Ocean and a collection of islands known as Kiribati. 
The location is one of the poorest nations in the world and is best known by Westerners as the site of The Battle of Tarawa in World War II
and the most likely nation to vanish due to global warming. Book your tickets quick.
There is a certain schizoid imbalance to writing about distant lands.
Battle Harbour, Labrador
My mind is half in the arctic, but when I walk the dog, I know that I am a long way from that.
John Street, Downtown Manhattan
I think of vast expanses, glacial winds, privation and suffering and remember that I need to get pecorino cheese and a nice Sicilian white for dinner.
One of the greatest thrills in writing is the initial research. The setting for my upcoming novel will likely be in the high arctic. And so I have come across the life and words of Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933), who led six major expeditions over his lifetime, circumnavigating his native Greenland and crossing the Arctic. 
All true wisdom is only to be found far from dwellings of man, in the great solitudes; and it can only be attained by great suffering. Suffering and privation are the only things that can open the mind of man to that which is hidden from his fellows.
Hurricane Sandy’s devastating effects have been well documented in New York City and the surrounding environs. The New York Times published a fascinating map on the flooded areas just today. But Hurricane Sandy’s damage is even more far-reaching, as it goes all across Long Island, to the Hamptons and beyond.
Flying Point Beach, Southampton, October 13, 2012 (Two weeks before Hurricane Sandy)
Flying Point Beach in Southampton, shown above, had been some 40-50 yards wide, all of it long and flat. It has since been pushed back at least 30 of those yards, right up into the dunes in parts. 
It has torn out fencing and grassroots, leaving behind a dark black residue. 
And while the ocean still breaks at the same edge, the water now flows across a wide shallows where there once was sand.
There are also hundreds of trees down all over the region 
There is a certain beauty to all of this, even if it’s broken 
scattered, 
or just detritus. 
But even if it isn’t appreciated by all, as they say, life does go on. 
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