Cooperstown Observed by Sam Goodyear

Thank You to the Altruists

As traditions go, the garden is about as long-standing as you can get. In The Beginning, along with Heaven and Earth, and the Sun and the Moon, there was the Garden of Eden.

The origin of the name Garden of Eden is subject to a number of theories. A particularly persuasive one ascribes it to the ancient Hebrew word, “edan,” meaning pleasure. Gardens of every stripe customarily give immense pleasure.

The gardens of Cooperstown abound with riches: flowers of every color, height, size, shape, and configuration; herbaceous borders; privet hedges; multicolored flowering bushes in bursts of joy; plants without number; flower-filled window boxes, urns, and hanging baskets; seasonal wreaths; mini-jungles worthy of Henri Rousseau; and whiffs of lilacs, roses, honeysuckle, and the like.

The creators of these riches do so with thought to neither grace, nor favor, nor gain. They invest in their creations time, toil, care and heart. To view these riches there is no entry fee, no membership subscription, no suggested donation, no gratuity. The primary beneficiaries of these labors are not the laborers themselves, who are at home inside without x-ray vision. It is we the passers-by who benefit the most. It is altruism pure and simple. The altruists deserve our heartfelt thanks.

So thank you, thank you, one and all.

What a privilege, thanks to so many selfless souls, to live in a modern-day Garden of Eden.

And fear not, for no malevolent snakes, nor toxic apples, have been reported.

Sam Goodyear was born in Cooperstown and, because of his father’s profession in the Foreign Service, grew up all over the world and continued that pattern throughout his adult life until two years ago, when he returned to where he was born. It took him only 80 years to do so.