First Salicornia since California

 

Not since California in 2016 had I seen a glasswort, but I immediately recognized and was keen to photograph several glasswort plants I found on the bay side of Galveston Island State Park on September 19th. An article by Cindy Howard of the Galveston Bay Area chapter of Texas Master Naturalists says two species of Salicornia keep company there: dwarf glasswort, S. bigelovii, and American glasswort, S. virginica. The length of the plant’s elements inclines me toward S. virginica, but I don’t know enough to be certain. What I can tell you for sure is that inertia led me to keep using the telephoto lens that was on the camera from having photographed birds; that was easier than walking back to the car to change to a different lens. When processing the photograph later I cropped in to emphasize the plant’s growth habit and make the image more abstract.

 

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The price of principle is high. I am paying that price. I ask no one to feel sorry for me. I chose my way of life. But the punishments for principle—and the rewards for unprincipled partisanship—transcend me and my family. They reflect a corrosive societal trend that endangers the cohesion of our nation under the rule of law. I will continue to fight for principle, no matter how high the personal price.

That’s the last paragraph in Alan Dershowitz’s latest book, The Price of Principle: Why Integrity Is Worth the Consequences, which I recommend. The title reminds me of Thoreau’s essay “Life Without Principle,” which I first read in high school and likewise recommend. It’s available online. Here’s one passage:

If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!

Most men would feel insulted, if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now….

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman