Bends Toward Justice

 In retrospect I can imagine someone saying, "Okay, he sounds like a fairly important figure in the development of American literature, but that doesn't make him that  significant in the culture as a whole."  Wait! No.  I can't.  That's too ignorant.  If I wrote the essay refuting that, the person who said it wouldn't be able to read or comprehend it.   Anyway, my point here is that I  majored in English at a college in Maine where most of the English department faculty were American Lit specialists, and no one ever mentioned John Neal. There's more to his influence than that: John Neal Part Three: Art Criticism Though Neal earned money as a miniature portraitist and watercolor instructor in his teens, he later denied any artistic ability.  Those early experiences may have contributed to his appreciation of portrait painters trained in sign painting and applied arts.   He began to write art criticism in his Baltimore days and i...

Since it's four years later, some things have changed.  Not with John Neal; he's still dead and underappreciated.  Dugan Murphy, identified back then as a contra dance caller, owns his own history walking tour business in Portland:  https://www.portlandbythefoot.com/guid e. John Neal Part Two: Literary Influence Given Neal’s background and childhood, it is amazing he even survived to adulthood.  He’d be considered a man of great accomplishment if he’d done none of the things I wrote of in the last paragraph, but had only done half of the other things he did in his life. Neal’s father died only a month after John and his twin sister Rachel were born.  His mother Rachel supported the family by opening her own school and taking in boarders.  With the assistance of their Quaker community, the Neal family lived in “genteel poverty.”  At age 12 Neal left school and home for full-time employment. He began his business career as a haberdasher and dry goods sal...

In 2022, as I was developing a walking tour business and writing about Portland history, I posted about John Neal on the business web site.  That site is no longer hosted, so I am reposting writings from it.  Here's part one about John Neal: John Neal  (August 25, 1793 – June 20, 1876) While I was training to lead a “Homes of Portland’s Golden Age” tour for Greater Portland Landmarks, we looked at a house on State Street and learned that it was John Neal’s house and that he was America’s first art critic.  That upper block of State Street was removed from the tour because of time constraints. Later I was researching the Portland Rum Riot for a presentation and learned that after the riot John Neal condemned the actions of his cousin, Mayor Neal Dow, saying Dow should be charged with murder. Those two pieces of information were fuzzy in my mind when I saw a post on FaceBook about the house https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/pphnegs_images_business/549/?fbclid=...

I wrote that I wanted to say more about the BnB in Odeceixe, but I find it isn’t much, just this: it was run by a mother & daughter, the mother is 92, she put a pot of some kind of fruit tea on the table & pushed Bruce & me to have some, ascribing her longevity to it & a mixed fruit dish, and she made these covers for the water & juice glasses: Of course, my dad lived to 96 & was still moving pretty good past 92 & he liked to get up in the middle of the night and have split two hot dogs with cheese & mustard with his dog. So what does she know? Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnets are pretty overwrought & full of poetic devices that detract from the sincerity of the message, but they get better as they go along. I think Dad would have been able to recite the most famous one from memory even a few weeks ago: XLIII How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight...

I’ve concentrated these posts on the travel & walking, shortchanging some other cultural observations, like food, drink, etc. As we are now headed back to Lisbon, those things may get more attention. Events elsewhere have colored our experience here. This next part is personal. Some reader may find it interesting, or in the future we may appreciate the reminder of these things. Jan & Bruce have been particularly concerned about the impact of Hurricane Helene the last few days. A couple weeks before we left & just before his 96th birthday, my dad began hospice care. We went to see him on his birthday. It was not at all clear that he was any closer to death. On our first day here we were shocked to learn that a beloved friend since college died due to consequences of cancer. Our thoughts the first two days were on Terry, her family, and our mutual friends. She was active, adventurous, loving, fun, and until last spring, healthy. She’s on the left in this photo. Thursday, Dad’...

Breakfast included today & everyone in there was heading out one way or the other on the Fisherman’s Trail, it seemed. Some of them we’d seen before & saw again later today. It was one of two times so far this trip when we’ve had a chance to slurp up coffee the way we’re used to at home. Thing is it’s shitty coffee. I quite like having an Americano the way they do it here . The start today was down to the beach then steeply up & an elevation profile of the route shows that’s the story of the day. But not the whole story. Here we went partway down, then crossed a wet place above a waterfall. That’s Meg descending some stairs to get a good angle for a photo. The waterfall is visible at the bottom of the photo. This is the photo she took: We stopped at a beachside coffee stand only a mile or two along. The sign indicates we’d gone about four miles. In here, if I remember right, there’s a stretch where we turned inland and squeezed between a wire fence and the vegetation, getti...

Alarm at 6:30 & Meg checked the weather. Rain coming this afternoon so she pushed for an early start. Good thing! We were walking by 7:30 on a leg of 22km. That’s 13.7 miles in American. The first mile and more was road, boardwalk & dirt road, a nice break from all the sand. It was overcast & windy, gusts maybe 20 mph. I had to carry my hat cradled against my chest. Here’s a little fishing harbor we passed in the first couple miles. Bruce posted on Facebook about the insanity of keeping a boat here. Then it was spectacular scenery & miles of easier walking & weather that veered between almost great and almost awful. The miles were going by. Stunning scenery The Cape Sardine lighthouse. Occasionally pausing to appreciate the views And the miles going by Sooner than expected we were entering Cavaleiro & stopping for coffee & pastries. This lion was just too cool not to get a picture, though the coffee shop was cool because coffee & I got no photo. Then wit...

The walk from Villanova de Milfontes to Almograve is the shortest of the trip. The most interesting thing about it is the ferry shortcut at the start. Here’s a photo of Villanova de Milfontes from the ferry. The ferry carries 9 people at a time. Everyone riding it is walking the Fisherman’s Trail. Here’s a photo of the beach where we landed. Off we strode. If you read reviews and descriptions online, this section is easier, less sandy, more boring, or any number of distinctions from yesterday’s, but if you’re planning you might as well think of it as the same, just shorter. However, there’s a stretch with overgrown vegetation. The next two photos were meant to illustrate that. That’s why my mouth is slack jawed. When I saw this next post, I thought I might be onto some found poetry. But the subsequent posts were more exhortative: The main thing about this day is that before 2:00 we were done & having a beer at a cafe.