JUNE 19, 2025 – My oldest sister once defined culture as “all the books you’ve read but can’t remember.” I might define civilization as “all the dinner and late-night conversations you have that you can remember the next morning.” By this definition, yesterday evening civilization was enriched and renewed as eight of us reveled in a memorable wide-ranging conversation over a sumptuous homemade dinner that outlasted the sun by a good two hours. Two of us continued the conversation until nearly 1:00 a.m. Well past morning—in fact, long after sundown on the following day—I remember well the substance and many of the details of our conversation. I’m certain that the color of people’s stories will live in my memory and theirs well into the future.
The eight included three couples and a late-joining friend (for dessert), whose wife was unable to join us, and a nine-year old girl whose ears were filled with our chatter until she sailed off to the land of nod.
The place of our gathering was a secluded getaway cabin on the west shore of a great pond on Cape Cod. The occasion was simply a rare reunion of friends arranged around the out-of-town visit by three of the guests—my spouse, our granddaughter, and I. The appearance of two other guests was a completely delightful surprise for the Minnesotans. Years had passed since our previous gathering. The direct source of friendship of three of us was our alma mater, Bowdoin College in Maine. Our spouses joined the circle well over four decades ago. The late-joining friend, Dr. Mike, could just as well have been a comrade at Bowdoin, but he went to a different “B” school—Boston University—and graduated three years ahead of us. He and his wife are close local friends of our hosts, but over the life of this blog, Mike and I have become good friends as well, and it was he who regaled me with fascinating stories after the other guests had left and our hosts had returned to their main residence, a 15-minute drive away.
My fellow Polar Bears and I spared our company “boring old tales from back in the day.” We stuck to the present, to politics—all of us sharing the same sentiments, meaning outrage with the direction the current regime has taken the country. Our shared fears and disdain were tempered, however, by ample (non-political) humor, various book recommendations, personal updates, sobering challenges faced by certain classmates and the timeless truth that “money can’t buy happiness.”
As I heard the words, laughed at the humorous, absorbed the poignant, stored the informational and admired the resilient, I felt supreme gratitude for having among my friends, this group of extraordinary human beings. Each of these people is a gift to this world and a reminder that “Civilization America” offers the world far more than noise and bright shiny objects. Accordingly, our country is worth saving from itself.
When I attempted to compose today’s post, I discovered my keyboard wasn’t functioning. After taking a deep breath, I developed a workaround plan. A hundred forty-five dollars later, the plan was implemented, thanks to a guy “Brian” running his own computer servies shop on the edge of town, and one “Nick,” an immigrant from Moldova, at the Staples Office store in Falmouth. Here now, is the result—delayed and truncated but posted nonetheless.
It’s a great country.
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
