In contrast to this serene scene, the amount of trash we saw upon arriving at remote Pacific islands was shocking.  Imagine my surprise after dreaming about sailing to paradise, to an untouched wilderness I read about in Cruising World Magazine, and then spending years learning to sail, saving money, outfitting a sailboat, and finally setting sail, only to discover that the more remote the island, the more trash accumulated because there was no one there to pick it up.

I am a born landlubber; the Pacific Ocean was just a place on the map to me until I was in my 40s and began sailing on it.  During two Pacific Ocean crossings as one of two crewmembers on 40-foot boats I learned that though vast, the ocean is vulnerable to land-based pollution.  Our industrial society spews out so much plastic it threatens ocean health, and by default the health of all humans.  The ocean literally makes human life on earth possible, so whether one lives seaside or inland we all should include the ocean in our holiday giving plans.

Mandy Barker’s exhibit  “Shelf Life” makes my experience of the unbelievable amount of marine trash palpable to those who live far from the sea. Her disturbing, beautiful photographic images are made up solely of items washed upon beaches of uninhabited Henderson Island.  So much for remote island paradise.

Ocean water separates Pacific Islands from other areas of the world, while it also connects them to the industrial world via cargo ship. Markets on even the smallest of islands, supply limited local fresh produce and are full of plastic drink bottles, lotion and cosmetic containers; shoes and other clothing; bags and wrappers of all kinds; whose one-way trip terminates on the paradise island.

Cargo ships also brought much needed emergency supplies to Tonga after it experienced the record-breaking Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption in January 2022, covering the islands in ash and triggering huge tsunamis.  Relief efforts included 86,000 plastic bottles of drinking water, crucial for Tongans whose lives were at stake.  The paradox is that once used, these bottles had nowhere to go except into the ocean.

In truth, ocean plastic pollution is an extension of the land plastic pollution problem created by industrial consumerism.  According to Captain Charles Moore, discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch “The ocean is downhill from everywhere — the principal repository for vagrant plastic waste.”

We landlubbers need to understand is that our throw-away economic system is littering our whole planet; trash we see blowing in the streets and hanging up in the trees is not disappearing into the ocean—it’s clogging it up.  The consequences are serious for everyone. The plastics that wash down river systems into the ocean contaminate drinking water, harm fish and other sea life, and in turn impact ecosystems, health and economies.

Let’s follow the example of students in the NOAA Planet Stewards program, who worked together with school cafeteria staff and administrators to reduce the amount of cafeteria plastic waste by 75%.  Many school groups have successfully advocated for water bottle refilling stations in their school, keeping thousands of bottles out of the waste stream during the school year.

To amplify individual efforts, let’s invest in organizations like Oceana who urges bottling companies to increase reusable packaging to eliminate one trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups, or Ocean Conservancy who works with volunteers on mass ocean cleanups. Teaming up to share a collective voice with governments and businesses can have greater impacts than individual lifestyle changes alone.

During the holidays we support what we cherish, and caring for the ocean ought to be on all of our to-do lists.  As my experience shows, even landlubbers are deeply connected to the ocean, a beautiful, living force that everyone depends on.  Please consider giving thanks for our mighty and vulnerable ocean by including it in this year’s gift-giving plan.

Playing the fiddle connects one to a robust history of music making that dates to the Middle Ages in Europe and even earlier in the Middle East and Asia.  Many might be surprised to learn that “violin” and “fiddle” are variants of the same word, pronounced differently in different areas in Europe.   To give an idea of the many variations of the Latin root variants “viella” and “vidula” is the medieval French version of the instrument, the “vielle,”pronounced “fee-ell,” which also resembles closely the Old English name for the instrument “fithele.”

Just as the word “fiddle” has many variations, so does the way people learn to play it.  Since colonial times, American fiddlers have been teaching themselves how to make the instrument sing for the amusement of its player and everyone close enough to hear its bright, cheery voice.  While our fiddling ancestors had to learn and remember as much as they could from live meetings with other fiddlers, today not only can we consult a range of “how to” books, but learning from other fiddlers by watching them play is only a YouTube click away.

American fiddle tunes are just waiting for fiddlers new and old to make them their own, offering an important outlet for personal creativity.  This tune repertory is a rich one that includes melodies first published in John Playford’s 1651 English publication The Dancing Master, which contained the tune we know now as “Greensleeves” or “What Child is This?”  Since they first crossed the Atlantic Ocean carrying Playford’s volume, American fiddlers have been adding to this repertory to reflect their own experience.  “Durang’s Hornpipe” was composed in 1785 for a famous hornpipe dancer in New York City and Philadelphia named John Durang.  People who fiddle have adapted the tune to suit themselves, creating their own “Missouri version,” “Texas version,” and others, in addition to the original.

Not only is there a variety of tunes and tune versions to choose from, there are rich regional repertories that have developed over the years in both oral tradition (learning “by ear”) and in written notation.  The 2007 publication Dear Old Illinois  contains 750 tunes, including numerous originals that had never been notated before.  Yet the collection still emphasizes that these written versions are not authoritative, and that individual creativity and ingenuity is welcomed and encouraged when it comes to fiddling.

Historically, the fiddle functioned much as the ITunes playlist does today.   Since the first documented fiddler John Utie arrived on American soil from England in 1620, the instrument has been producing old tunes as well as the popular melodies of the day.  For example, the poem “Jefferson and Liberty” was set to the old fiddle tune “Gobby O” and performed as a campaign song for Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 run for the presidency.  Incidentally, Jefferson was an accomplished fiddler, whose library contains numerous popular dance tunes and songs in addition to classical compositions.

Jefferson’s 1803 purchase of “Louisiana” precipitated the Lewis and Clark Exploration (1804-1806), which travelled into the wilderness west of the Mississippi to chart a course to the Pacific Ocean.   The Corps of Discovery included two fiddlers, one of whom, Pierre Cruzatte, was nearly blind.  As the Lewis and Clark journals show, fiddling aided this epic journey by not only keeping the travelers’ spirits up, but also facilitating communication with the Native American tribes the Corps met along the way.

As Jefferson and Cruzatte knew, once a person starts fiddling, they will discover a way to express thoughts and feelings that lie deeply hidden in a protected place where no smartphone could ever reach.   It can also be an antidote to our overreliance on electronic technology to do things for us and remind us that we are capable of meaningful communication and personal growth by creating our own music. There is something physically comforting about wrapping one’s arms around the figure-eight-shaped wooden resonating box and drawing the bow to bring forth music from the strings. Playing the fiddle connects one’s creative spirit with the past, present, and future.

In sum, fiddling is good medicine for the soul in these uncertain times.  For parents looking for a creative outlet for quarantined children, the fiddle is a good choice.  It has been serving up wholesome entertainment for Americans since Colonial times, offering a musical pathway to creative expression fitting for the times.  Adults are also perfect candidates for taking up the fiddle as a productive and satisfying hobby.  To be sure, those wanting to pursue classical violin training will want to look to professional instruction.  For those looking for a constructive way to develop individual and community joy through music, American fiddling has been providing such opportunities for over three hundred years to those lucky enough to discover what it has to offer.