Photo: Fred J. Field
What does this little love story from the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine have to do with land conservation? Certainly the connection is tangential, but it is too good a story not to share.
A few years ago, TPL was involved in a complicated effort to protect Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine. Since we needed to raise money for the project, and it seemed like a good story, we pitched a Maine-based freelance writer named Stacey Chase to go to Sabbathday and interview the four remaining Shakers in the world. (Members of the sect, as you may know, do not marry and are sexually abstinent.)
Chase did interview the Shakers, ended up marrying one of them, and as a result, there are now three remaining Shakers in the world.
My article on the world’s last four Shakers was at first only unusual because it was a rare glimpse into daily life at the Protestant monastic sect’s idyllic hilltop village in rural southern Maine. Never could I have imagined that that story, of all stories, would become the story behind the story of how I met, and eventually married, the long-sought love of my life.
TPL and its many partners successfully completed the project in 2006. You also may want to read Stacy Chase’s original story on the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village.
March 15, 2010 at 12:57 pm |
This was a sad chapter in the history of Chosen Land, also known as Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village. This woman will never know the amount of pain her actions caused the Shakers, their families, and their friends. Reporters who introduce themselves as part of their stories are neither professional nor moral.
March 15, 2010 at 3:49 pm |
I imagine that there are others who feel this way, Amanda — although it does seem unfair to imply that Mr. Smith was lured away by a siren reporter rather than making his own decision about how he wanted to spend his life.
April 18, 2010 at 9:42 pm |
Amanda… how patronising.
June 25, 2010 at 1:32 am
Sorry you feel that way, Michelle. I didn’t mean to be patronizing. I know it’s hard to accept, but Ms. Chase (along with Wayne) cause quite a bit of pain to the community and their friends.
I saw this all happen, so I am not speaking out of turn or passing on gossip.