This past weekend, as I sat over coffee in my wonderfully silent home reading the Sunday paper, I was captivated by an article in the New York Times magazine: “Going for Broken.” It’s a lyrical, reflective piece by Dana Spiotta about boating (or, more accurately, attempting to boat) through the ruins of the Erie Canal that balances a mournful look back with a realistic look forward. If you didn’t read it, you can find it online with even more photos than are in the published article (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/magazine/the-glorious-ruins-of-the-erie-canal.html?hpw).
Describing one night on the canal, Spiotta writes, “We set up our tent and watched the water grow dark. The boats on the original canal used to have lanterns hanging at each end. One of the canal’s revolutionary qualities was that it could operate 24 hours a day. It must have felt miraculous to sit on deck at night and watch the lanterns and the reflection of the lights on the water as they glided past and then faded into the distance.”
I love that observation because it hints at the truth behind the nostalgia: life has always been moving faster. These lanterns were “revolutionary,” allowing what used to be daylight-only traffic to go 24 hours a day. At the time, undoubtedly, someone was sitting on that same island longing for a time when no boats sailed past, interrupting the quiet of the night. Like Spiotta today, that island dweller longed for a more leisurely time (“Darn, ye, new fangled lanterns!”). Yet, at that very same moment, someone nearby was trying to figure out how to make things go faster and faster and faster. So, lanterns were replaced by electricity, boats by cars, canals by thruways, and warm lights on the water with the cool glow of Spiotta’s iPad as she “[uses her] iPad to check the river on Google Earth.”
The beauty of her article is in that juxtaposition (the “small, slow rowboat” tour navigated by iPad-enabled GPS) and the complex question it raises for each of us: how do we balance faster and faster with the need to slow down, every once in a while, just to catch up?
I hope that you find an opportunity this summer to find that balance and appreciate the slow length of the days as they stretch ever forward toward fall.
How will you be spending this time? I’d love to hear about it. Please share your plans on my blog.
Anne Kress
President's Office
06/15/2011 |