Lovleigh

old pictures, new frames

I was listening to NPR on my way to work, when a story about putting wind turbines up in a French town came on.  The big frustration is that these things will destroy the historic beauty of the night sky that has been lit up only by the light of an island abbey for centuries.  Environmentalists say you’ve got to put wind turbines where there’s wind.

…Break away from France with me for a moment… Every few years I get to the point where I go through all the dusty old things in my room and exchange them for new pictures in each frame, and donate things I don’t like as much as I use to, and box up special things that I want to keep but don’t need in plain sight anymore.  This is liberating!  It’s a physical way to make room for life to happen anew.  Everything I own, and cherish, and remember cannot all fit in my room all at once if I am to plow forward in life.  The snow of souvenirs and sentimentality eventually starts to cascade onto my windshield so that I have to stop completely to be able to clean it off and see straight.

…Now come back with me to our French problem…  It made me wonder just how much history can the world hold?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying “Tear down the old nasty abbey!!”  I’m also not saying “I know everything about wind turbines and their absolutely the best thing since the ipod!” I’m just wondering when we will finally come to terms with the fact that, in order to move forward in life, we’re all going to have to see the world and history in a new way.  We’re going to have to say things like, “Isn’t it great that we can have the abbey AND the wind turbines; that history and modernity are blending in the night sky here?”  When will that become beautiful? Acceptable?  At some point, it seems, we’re going to have to do some serious “house cleaning” and say:

“Yes, that old picture looks good in a new frame.”