It’s not unusual in our lives to encounter something that that seems outside our daily experience. A distant friend calls the moment you are thinking about them; two people describe the same dream, a sense that a departed love one has re-manifested in your life.

Over the years, Dr. Robert Abel has collected close to 900 stories describing unusual accounts of near-death experiences.

“I found these narratives fascinating and just put them in a drawer to think about. The pandemic allowed me to take refuge in my house in Tolchester and take a closer look at them,” he says.

Abel, a Wilmington ophthalmologist who lectures worldwide on vision and integrative medicine, says that his newly published book, Is Death a Mystery? Personal Stories that Lift the Veil offers narratives without a theological or philosophical bias.

Although he is widely informed by his life-long studies of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Lucretius, and medical research, he would rather leave the stories of near-death experiences as they are—for the reader to decide.

Abel describes a “your whole life flashes before your eyes” incident in his childhood while hiking with friends. As he dared to jump across a potentially fatal crevasse, his life flashed like a compressed cinematic moment. It was a life-altering experience and one that informed his empathy while listening to others.

The vignettes in the book describe a wide range of near-death, out-of-body, and spirit visitations without medical asides. In interviews, however, he is comfortable talking about neuroscience and their approach describing such phenomena as “merely projection” and will braid the discussion with quantum physics and Einstein formulations.

Clearly, many of us sense some indescribable dimension outside the five-senses. Abel has collected snapshots from those who believe they have been there, and all stories are linked by a common thread: healing, compassion, and love.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. Dr Abel’s book Is Death a Mystery? Personal Stories that Lift the Veil may be found on Amazon.

“Should I start in the 1800s?”

Since I was only writing an article, I explained to Robert “Bobby” Richardson that I would need him to condense it to a more modern time epoch. “You want to know why decoys are valuable? Well then, I’m only going to go back to probably the 1930s and come forward.”

He’s not kidding. The amount of information known by Cambridge native Richardson on the subject of decoys (also known as ‘birds’) is staggering, and your first reaction is that he should write a book. Well, he has, and it’s not just any book. Chesapeake Bay Decoys: The Men Who Made and Used Them, published in 1992, is still considered THE definitive guide for collectors and other enthusiasts. Even buying a used copy commands a hefty price.

Having attended the Waterfowl Festivals throughout the years, I knew decoys (ducks primarily, but also geese and swans) were used as lures to attract ducks. I had even bought a couple to display on my mantle, but I had no idea about the extent of their popularity—or price. Not that this was always the case. Richardson remembers speaking to a curator at an art show a long time ago. “She said, ‘Bobby, are you aware that this is an illegitimate art form? We’re not accepted, but when they understand that decoys are three-dimensional art, then we will be accepted and loved.’ And within the 50 years since, she was absolutely right, it’s an art form that we had missed.”

But what makes it art? According to Richardson, it goes beyond the visual. “Unlike the art on a wall, or a sculpture in a museum, it’s physical; you get to touch it.” Besides that, of course, there is the monetary aspect of their increasing in value.

“I started collecting in 1968,” said Richardson, “which makes me one of the earliest collectors. I remember talking to a guy who had an auction house and how it was unheard of to sell decoys in New York. Now, he told me, 60% of his buyers are from New York City. And that’s where the art world is.”

As Richardson explains it, necessity is what started him in the business. That and a good eye. As a hunter, he said, he would sometimes pick up a lure and think, “that’s a good-looking decoy.” He began accumulating and then selling them at a time when he needed to raise some money. But his expertise almost drove him out of the business he helped create. “I would sell them for $500 or 5,000. But after I sold it, the price would go up, and when I went to replace my inventory, I had to pay more than what I’d sold it for. So, it was a progression that I couldn’t control, because like a beautiful antique, every time it changes hands, it increases the value.”

Despite there being so many birds in the market, Richardson said there are only approximately 5% that can be considered a collectible. And this is where the 1800s come in. Back then, places such as Peterson Decoy or Mason Decoy Factory, or Animal Trap Company were carving, painting, and producing wooden decoys. By the time World War II started, some of these factories that were still in business switched to helping the war effort, manufacturing, for example, gunstocks for the army. After the war, the decoy industry changed, and few decoys were hand made. Instead, machines were churning out lighter-weight plastic decoys.

Suddenly, Richardson said, wooden decoys started to generate interest. “People would pick one up and say, ‘I love it, that’s a green ringed teal.’ Or ‘isn’t that a pretty mallard, or ‘gosh, isn’t that a nice black duck.’ And the rest is history. Everybody started collecting and wanting them like they’d want a good tea table or a good work of art for the wall.”

By the 1970s, decoys were a big business and were viewed as an important form of Americana and folk art. Richardson, who said he’s sold over 10,000 decoys in his career, would agree, recalling how he even received $42,000 for a single sale at an auction. Of course, when coming in contact with as many people as he has throughout his lifetime, Richardson has a vault full of interesting memories of people he’s met. People like Don O’Brien, Nelson Rockefeller’s family lawyer, Walter Chrysler, the founder of Chrysler, and Zalmon Simmons, who founded the Simmons mattress company, to name a few.

He remembers early in his career selling a swan decoy to entrepreneur Kathleen Mulhern owner of the renowned The Garden restaurant in Philadelphia. “She wrote me a check for $25,000, and on my way home, I nearly flipped the car over, looking at that check. I had never had $25,000 in my life.”

But not all exchanges were successful. Richardson recounts one experience at Easton High School, during the Waterfowl Festival, where he and a friend were exhibiting their birds. Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, showed up and asked for the price of three decoys. “He was told it would be $300,” said Richardson. “Kissinger replied, ‘So now if I write you this check, are you going to cash it?’ My friend asked ‘why the hell wouldn’t I?’ And Kissinger said, ‘because I’m Henry Kissinger, and you’ll want it as a souvenir.’ ‘I don’t care. I’m going to cash your check,’ he said. Wouldn’t you know it, Kissinger never bought the birds.”

These memories also surprisingly included many of the decoys that have gone through Richardson’s hands “When it’s something you love, you know a lot about it. I get so much fun out of the auction catalogs because I see so many old friends.” And by old friends, he means the birds.

But don’t mistake his love for the collectible as a love for a particular bird. When asked how many decoys he still owns, Richardson, who sold off his collection a few years ago, said he only kept around a dozen. “The sale is basically what I live off of now. The irony of it all is I’m not unhappy that I sold everything because they’re made of wood. And I’m made of flesh and blood, and that’s more important to me.”

So, I wondered, are the ones he kept, the birds he couldn’t bear to part with? “No, no, no, no, no,” he responded. “They’re there because they have no value. If they had any great value, they would be gone. I did this to make a living. I didn’t do it because I was rich, but I love the art form.”

Richardson is now in his early 80s. He and his wife, Nancy, still live in Cambridge, and now that he no longer collects decoy, he’s taken up a new hobby–making folk art crow and owl birds. But he’s also found contentment with creating and painting chess/checker game boards.

It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that a Bobby Richardson original would become a collectible in the future.

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

 

 

I’ve always felt there was nothing more unattractive than “I told you so,” but now I know something worse–far worse than that. And his name is Donald Trump, lame duck, sore loser of all time president of the United States.

I’ve written from time to time in this cyberspace about this man’s total unfitness to be our commander in chief. The I-told-you-so part comes from having edited coverage of this jerk–that’s the kindest word I can say about him–for decades on Long Island and New York City. He was a joke. No one with any sense, regardless of political persuasion, took him seriously, except if you were unfortunate enough to do business with him. He could bankrupt you by his notorious modus operandi. He hired independent mom-and-pop contractors, rarely big corporations so that when it came time to honor his contract with them, he would pay 20 to 40 cents on the dollar and dare you to sue him. Mom-and-pops couldn’t afford to take him to court. And he got away with it for decades.

He has no political or moral convictions whatsoever. Nor is he even aware of what an idiot he makes of himself owing to his psychotically overrated estimation of his wherewithal. I almost fell out of my newsroom chair in laughter, listening to Donald pretending to be his own publicist. We couldn’t figure out whether he did this because he was too cheap to hire a professional or that he thought he could do a better job himself. One thing was clear: He never listened to anyone who might tell him he was making a damn fool of himself. This is long before he even ventured into the political arena by claiming with zero evidence that Barack Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia–who knows?–Mars. Anywhere but in the USA.

My point is that maybe in my participation in coverage of this megalomaniac of minimal qualifications for anything beyond carnival barker, I was, among my colleagues, in a better position to peg this guy as disaster-in-chief. There’s a phrase for guys like Trump in far lesser positions of power than he found himself in. He doesn’t now nor ever has known his ass from a hole in the ground. I hardly exaggerate when I say that everyone I have ever known–possibly excluding the dead, though they would do less damage than Donald–would make a better president than Trump.

OK. So here’s what I REALLY think of Donald, the demented, deranged, delusional, damnable, and dangerous: He will bring you down if you continue to support and make excuses for this unchallenged title holder of Sorest Loser of All Time.

The House of Representatives should convene as soon as possible to listen to the hour-long harangue of Donald Trump committing sedition against the Constitution he was sworn to uphold, badgering Georgian Republicans to manufacture just enough votes to put him over the top. Citing thousands of dead who voted in the Nov. 3 election, he was informed that the number was actually 2–both of whom cast invalid ballots FOR Trump.

Upon listening to this obscene assault on democracy and the rule of law that is supposed to cover us all, presidents not excepted, the House should vote immediately to impeach Trump and send the indictment to the Senate for an up-and-down vote the next day. The 25th Amendment might be a more appropriate measure, except that the toad who calls himself vice president will never be on board.

Donald Trump needs to be gone. Now. All the insults he slings at his imagined enemies apply directly to him.

Fake. Disgraceful. Treasonous. How about just plain stupid?

Add up all the hits–all of them deserved–that he has taken from the New York Times, the Washington Post, news networks excepting (though not so much lately) Fox–none of this even collectively has inflicted as much damage on Trump as he inflicts on himself. He’s a moron, ignoramus, liar, and imposter. Listen to this obscene hour of sedition recorded by Republicans and leaked because even they realize he’s unhinged from reality. Then tell me you continue to support this insanely brainless would-be dictator. He’s our worst constitutional nightmare. And thankfully, hopefully, he will be gone very soon, though not soon enough.

Donald talks, ridiculously, of having won in Georgia by “hundreds of thousands” of votes while at the same time complaining that the number of COVID dead is “wildly” exaggerated. Donald could give a damn, as he has proven by his pandemic negligence, about the very life and death of “ordinary” Americans. All he cares about is staying in the White House long enough to outlast the felony statute of limitations on potential New York state charges against him. But now he’s added Georgia state charges as well. I suppose if he manages to get himself self-appointed president for life, he’ll outlast that statute of limitation as well.

Never mind all that. The president had no New Year’s message for the nation. But I have two words, especially for surviving Trump supporters, and for all of us as well: President Biden.

Meanwhile, there is massive election fraud going on right now. Donald is hitting on his supporters for contributions to support “investigations” into the election he lost to Joe Biden by a wide margin. And Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who stepped up first to say he would object to Congress’s Electoral College certification, has likewise widely solicited donations for a similarly non-existent investigation. Both are nakedly fraudulent enterprises: Trump’s to line his pockets in order to survive the avalanche of legal costs he will incur once he’s evicted from the White House and Howley’s so he can run for president in 2024. Both of these grifters are counting on fools to rush in with their wallets. For heaven’s sake, give to your favorite charity instead in this new and hopefully far better new year than 2020.

Steve Parks is a retired New York journalist now living in Easton.

 

Photographer Tim Fields is a member of the All-inclusive Photography Club.

Perhaps President-elect Joe Biden should be thankful that President Donald Trump is hosting and starring in his final White House episode, an especially egregious one. Even the faithful must wonder about shaking up the defense department because of resentment. But then what should we expect?

Historically Presidents have stood down in relatively gracious ways. When cooperation is the denouement, the spotlight swiftly shifts to the incoming President and various critiques of his moves headline the daily news. Sometimes the critiques are not so admiring.

Today Trump gives Biden cover on two fronts and continues to provide reporters and pundits a narrative bubble in which they don’t have to think. Most importantly for Biden, Trump’s temperament reminds voters why Biden was elected.  Attitudes are defined by the age-old question, “compared to what?”.  As this final episode unfolds I suspect that even some of the Trump voters who didn’t feel an intense loyalty are happy to count down the days till departure.

My experience with politicians is that they prefer to avoid coverage of the process that leads to the grand announcements. Political processes are enduringly messy and often downright ugly as big egos surrounded by their spear carriers jockey for advantage in the new center of power. Trump provides cover.

And the reporters who have earned a lifetime award in Trump trashing have yet new indignities to animate their minds and pens. Trashing the President’s conduct is much easier than drilling down on personnel and policy. Biden’s choices for his cabinet and White House staff signal policy directions that beg to be at the head of the news and analysis.

But, since Trump coverage is often a magnet for readership frequency, let me add a few paragraphs. 

Democracy is hard. Look around the world, ascendancy is often paired with authoritarianism—China is a poster child as they lock down the Uighurs and undermine democracy in Hong Kong.

America has been for several centuries the antidote. We, Americans, have told the story of sharing power by our actions. Sure the thoughts and the words of the founders were crucial but they are abstract. Our actions have given life to the theories and for the most part our dedication to freedom, democracy, federalism, republicanism, and more recently equality, have been compelling messages to people yearning to be free.

In much of the world, head of government succession doesn’t work well. Attempted and actual coups are not unusual. Power struggles dissipate national strength and not infrequently at the end of a gun. 

President Trump’s use of the courts is how we do things. So I certainly do not begrudge his right to challenge election results on the allegation of evidence-based cheating of one kind or another. What is maddening, however, is the insincerity of knowledgeable Republicans who give verbal support to his related storyline—the election was stolen. Fear of political retribution writes only one script—false.

But, every responsible leader (yes, if you are in the Congress you have a public responsibility) must make clear that as Trump litigates he must also instruct his administration officials to open the windows and cooperate with the President-elect and his transition team. I do not know of any constituency that supports a transitional breakdown in government continuity. And that is especially true with the institutions that protect us from various foreign and domestic threats.

Some have reported that in private conversations President Trump has spoken of running for President again in 2024. While the winning script in contemporary politics is uncertain, Trump supporters might want to consider the perishability of personality cults. Trump and his most ardent supporters might well find that free speech, age, overexposure, and parody will deplete his attraction. Indeed, his 2020 loss has already hurt.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

 

The mundane can, occasionally, focus your attention; and so it was this last Sunday evening.

We, Americans, were once again paying attention to the stages of the transfer of government leadership. We had just experienced a bruising campaign for President under difficult conditions. And by Sunday evening virtually all of the state-by-state election results had been called by the Associated Press.

Joe Biden had welcomed the call and Donald Trump had decided to contest it.

My wife and I were breezing through supper on our way to meet friends for an evening of music at the new Avalon Theater’s outdoor venue (by the way it is excellent). I decided to tune into ABC Sunday Night News to see if there were new developments and that is when the unexpected occurred. The news anchor essentially said we have political news, but first let’s reflect on the passing of Alex Trebek. About five minutes later the political story lines began.

Ordinarily I would have mumbled something about decadence as “Once again celebrity events trump serious news.” But, not this time.

My wife and I do not regularly watch Jeopardy, but when we do we often marvel at its 36 year host, Alex Trebek. Sure, Jeopardy is a game show, but Trebek made it so much more.

Trebek brought us all, somewhere between 13 and 14 million, into a nightly lesson on a wide range of subjects from mathematics to movie stars. Most nights, at least two of the stars of the show were new and they were on the show not as theatrical pretenders, but because they were studied and had quick minds.

Jeopardy will, of course, go on, but time will erode the memory of its 36 year host. What, at least in my mind, will not be eroded was the enduring quality of his elegance, courtesy and understatement. We can hope that as his life is celebrated people all over America, will understand that his legacy is truth—the truth of the answer but, more importantly, the truth of kindness in a life well lived. The lessons of generosity, respect, and authentic humor.

The ABC news director who decided to preempt America’s political tensions and reward a life well lived should receive an Emmy.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.