PAUL CHRISTENSEN

No one seems to know what to think or how to feel right now. The stress is building and the threats to this election are so poisonous, it makes you quiver with fear. It doesn't matter how confident you feel about your own vote and the situation here in the heart of New England (Vermont), but wherever I go, I see Trump flags, Trump posters, homemade Trump panels in the middle of a pasture, Trump stickers on car bumpers. If you're lucky, and the fates want to spare you a sour s

Leaves are drifting down from the fiery maple trees across the street. They are perforating the dark hillside with little fists of sunlight as they are released from the branches. It is not a dramatic show of how fall sweeps in and transforms the world. The change is gradual, painstaking, intricate as needlework. I find it hard to pay attention. But in a week or two, the air around the massive black trunks will be diluted with vague pre-winter light. It makes me sad to witnes