“Good Try, Humans.”
Nature has a way of outshining our best attempts at *beauty*.
After moving back to Kansas City from Indianapolis, we decided to rent rather than buy a new home. (House prices, right?)
We found a townhome that we liked in a part of the suburbs that was equidistant between our families on the south side and our friends to the north.
One of our goals was to find a place near a green area where our dog Max could run around and get her “zoomies” out. We hit the jackpot and found a place to rent that was on the end of a street with perfect access to an open field.
Progress Invades Our Oasis
However, about a week or two into living here, I noticed that a truck or two was dropping gravel into part of the field near the street. I realized they were creating a temporary gravel bridge to let vehicles in and out of the field.
Then, overnight, they arrived. In the words of my 4-year old son, they were “Big trucks, little trucks, loud trucks, digger trucks.”
The tiny oasis in our suburban life was suddenly invaded by the live version of “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site.”
The grass has been buried under dirt. The tiny flowing hills have been flattened. The few large trees that were scattered around the field have been torn down and trucked away.
Hour after hour, trucks arrive to collect the dirt and drive it off to some mysterious place where all the beauty of nature goes to make way for human progress.
Soon, I’m told, there will be a brand new shopping center and more townhomes where a natural habitat once was.
I’m sure it’ll be great, and I’ll quickly forget the reality that mankind destroyed an entire habitat to make way for another CBD dispensary.
Nature Shows Her Stuff
This morning, I took my oldest son and dog out on a walk before the sun rose. (Not my choice, my son has decided to be part of The 5 AM Club.) As we walked, I noticed how quiet the area was.
No grinding gears, no trucks beeping as they backed up, just… quiet.
Then, I noticed the sun rising over the horizon, throwing beams of soft yet brilliant light across the sky. The sun rose over the construction site, illuminating the “digger trucks” sitting in their silent reverie.
It was a reminder that nature still had the upper hand despite our best efforts at the beauty of progress — nice housing, new infrastructure, convenient coffee shops.
I scrambled for my phone, coffee in one hand and dog leash in the other. My son whined, “Whaaaaat are you doooooing?” as I snapped a picture of this tiny moment.
I put my phone away and watched in awe as nature rose mightily over the horizon. A short experience, offering a reminder that the world sees our feeble attempts to create artificial beauty and simply says, “Hey, hold my beer.”
Well, Mother Nature, cheers.
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