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Dear Friends,
I saw the most beautiful farmhouse. It was surrounded by a pristine green lawn and rows of mature trees on all sides. A barn, grain silo, and other outbuildings filled out this little paradise. Throw a rock from anywhere on the wrap-around porch and you’d hit rows of corn stretching for miles in three directions.
And the whole scene struck me as an awful tragedy.
Because I could see it.
I mentioned that the cornfields spread out in three directions. What about the fourth? Well, approximately twenty-five yards that direction sits the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which I happened to be driving at the time. Tens of thousands of vehicles a day, big rigs and Beemers and minivans, all rumbling a stone’s throw from this beautiful back porch. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for the land-and-homeowners to hear the announcement that the Turnpike was slated for their backyard. Somehow they’ve made their peace with it, but I don’t think I could.
I don’t want to go all Wendell Berry on you and lament the advent of the automobile or concrete jungles or the hustle and bustle of having to frantically get from Point A to Point B or the demands of modern life, and so forth. I think we can and should strike a balance between the agrarian and urban life, but this particular juxtaposition was difficult for me to stomach. Just a shame.
Have you ever had that thought as you were cruising along an Interstate Highway? Wow, what a beautiful home! Except for the inconvenient fact that it sits right next to the Interstate Highway. Perspective is a very relative thing, isn’t it? From the highway that porch looks amazing; from the porch, that highway makes it not nearly so amazing.
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