A Water View

Dear You,

The storm gave way to light clouds and peeks of sunshine, so the lakeside cottage owner suggested a boat ride. In my everyday life, my view of any of the Finger Lakes of Upstate New York is from the highway, often during the tasting-trips I like to take to wineries. On this occasion, I was able to see through the looking-glass . . . that is, from the reverse of the usual.

For many years I have marveled at the idea that people could own more than one house and all that goes with it -- a boat, for example. Such a life surpasses need, the existance of so many who share our planet. In that life, one can live near the water (or not), can take a boat out onto that water (or not), even just look at the water whenever it takes your fancy (or not). It is a life of options, of choice.

I'm not talking about luxury. As we cruised near the shoreline we passed many houses that looked old and modest and well-loved. Perhaps the parents or grandparents had constructed them (as was the case of the cottage I was visiting), and they had devolved through the next generation or two. A sailboat hauled onto the little beach, a propane grill near a picnic table, a few plastic chairs, a towel over a branch to dry . . .

What caught my eye at length, however, was increasing evidence of such dwellings being bought, bulldozed, and replaced with "McMansions." These were way out of scale to their environment, with 2- and 3-bay boathouses, along with the docks that were two-storey affairs (a deck on top, for parties above the water?). Conspicuous consumption, to my eye.

Ahhh, for earlier, simpler times, when one's wealth did not jump out of the photographs.