Last week, thanks to the generosity of my mother- and father-in-law who were visiting us from California, my husband and I had a weekend getaway.
It’s not quite as romantic as it sounds: Our 22-month-old son came along, too. Still, it was the first time in over three years that my husband and I had been away from home – and our four daughters – together. We headed to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, one of our favorite idyllic escapes. (For out-of-state friends who visit Addison County to “get away from it all,” yes there are places even more sleepy and remote, and the Northeast Kingdom, nestled between the Connecticut River and the Canadian border, is one of them.)
Our destination this time was new to us: Lake Willoughby, a glacial lake carved out between Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor. At over 320 feet deep in places, Lake Willoughby Is the deepest lake entirely contained in Vermont. Known for its clarity, Willoughby was named the third best lake in New England by Yankee Magazine in 2010.
The 150-minute drive from our house to our weekend rental was a journey through Vermont’s unique blend of quiet and quirky beauty: rolling green horizon, turquoise blue sky, sparkling rivers that were equal parts water and rocks, alpine meadows dotted with grazing cows, roadside clumps of chicory, goldenrod, and Queen Anne’s Lace. The presence of humans was hinted at by widely spaced farmhouses, some in pristine condition and others in various states of disintegration. Doublewides often had an incongruous number of vehicles parked out front (“That’s either a large family gathering or a drug deal,” my husband quipped when I pointed out the third such case). Occasionally we’d pass through a town, always with a white clapboard General Store (“Groceries*Beer*Bait*Guns*Ammo*Ice Cream*Gifts”) and an auto body shop (“Moody’s Used Car’s and Part’s”).
Our rental house was a small, unassuming farmhouse a few minutes away from the north shore of Lake Willoughby in the town of Brownington (population 960). Inside, however, it had been decorated in “Hunting Lodge Kitsch”: wood paneled walls, exposed beams, carved bears and moose around every corner, and no light fixture without antlers. It was perfect. We checked in, changed into our swimsuits, and headed to Lake Willoughby’s tiny North Beach.
The view down the lake from North Beach was stunning: pristine water flanked by steep mountain cliffs. Perhaps because it has such steep shorelines, Lake Willoughby is much less developed than other lakes we’ve visited in Vermont, which may explain why there was plenty of space on the beach on a warm and sunny Friday afternoon in late August.
But those people were there.
Click here to continue reading this week’s “Faith in Vermont” column in The Addison Independent.
The Pickle Patch 
lisastewart2450
Instead of judging people for their size and their perceived lack of education/polish and writing self serving blog posts subtlety hyping your privilege but asking others to be empathetic, why don’t you, yourself, take a deep dive into empathy.
Faith
Hi Lisa. I don’t think we know each other? But thank you for taking the time to read, think about, and respond to my column. It seems that it touched a nerve and caused you to feel angry/frustrated/annoyed, which of course was not at all my intent in writing it. This column was my attempt to be vulnerable about an icky trait I recognized in myself: the tendency to rush to judgment about others based on very limited, mostly external, information. I shared this in writing because I don’t think it’s unique to me — I think we all tend towards this type of judgment (I, for instance, feel rather unfairly judged by your comments!) and it explains a lot about human history and the divisive moment we’re in now. My intended point was not to wag my finger at other people, but do just what you suggest: take a deeper dive into empathy myself by considering other peoples’ context more fully. I hoped that would resonate with people who read it, but you’ve reminded me that it’s very challenging to write something and put it out into the world for people to read who don’t know me, and not have it be misunderstood sometimes. That’s on me to be more precise with my words and writing, so thank you for that reminder.