Shelter Island, off the north fork of Long Island, refuses to allow the twenty-first century to intrude on its sweet, summer lifestyle. Norman Rockwell at every turn. Jay Gatsby at others. The island can only be reached by a ferryboat from either Sag Harbor or Greenport, the latter being the final stop on the Long Island Railroad. Even before the small white ferry docks, your welcoming view is of majestic Victorians and gently sloping wooded shores in an area known as Shelter Island Heights. A park path leads through a garlanded area that leads to gingerbread houses with English gardens. Across from the church is a darling home with a wooden swing that really reminded me of my childhood, including the well-worn dirt beneath. The house is known as the "Churchmouse House."
If all this sounds too good to be true, or even a bit saccharine, it truly isn't. A few days on Shelter Island was the perfect antidote to "circuit overload" as I call it, caused by watching CNN, and my daily morning reading of both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I was due for a lobotomy or a retreat. I chose the latter. For five days I managed not to engage in any of the above activities, and even included living without my IPOD and being BlackBerry-less. It was heavenly.
Shelter Island reminds me of Nantucket, but without the intrusion of modern mega-construction and a predominance of nouveau Wall Street money. In fact, the smell of old money pervades the landscape all around Shelter Island, and is especially potent in Dering Harbor. Exquisite homes built in the 20's have sprawling lawns that reach to the harbor and private docks that would have inspired F.Scott Fitzgerald to write The Great Gatsby. I suspect Dering Harbor is where the "other" Kennedy residents reside, but their whereabouts is a well-kept secret. Since the island is listed on the National Historic Register and was founded in 1872, there has been a concerted effort by the residents not to develop the landscape. It is truly amazing how much remains pristine and wooded throughout the entire island. Beaches lack the impressive impact of the Hamptons, but then that is just a minor trade-off for the peacefulness and lack of traffic and pretension.
We stayed at the Chequit Inn, which is a pleasant enough place with lovely gardens and good food served on the porch in the evening. We walked everywhere and read books. We talked, and found ourselves as a couple again, which is always the joy of being away from the very distracting and somewhat frenetic life we live in New York City.
The effect of Shelter Island lasts as long as you come back to your center, while preserving the simple pleasures that are found in this community that does not need to impress or talk about money.
I highly recommend the shelter from the world as a way of breathing in deeply and vacating the negatives of this way too complex world, of realizing that a perfect summer day has nothing to do with the Stock Market and has everything to do with how you used to feel on a gorgeous summer day on school break when the sun was not too hot and the water and sky were too blue to be real.
