Anne Frank 2014

Previous posts to this blog noted how The Diary of Anne Frank was still controversial and the target of censorship. Many outlets are now reporting that 265 books, both the Diary and other Anne Frank related books, had been vandalized in 31 public libraries across Tokyo.  Despite, or perhaps because of, the moving testimonial and observations the book remains a target for xenophobes and the closed-minded.  

The Great Allegheny Passage (Feb 2014)

The Great Allegheny Passage Tail is a 149-mile walking path that begins in Cumberland, Maryland and winds its way up to Pittsburgh, ending at Point State Park where the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the Ohio River in downtown Pittsburgh.

Railroad tower near MM144

On the weekend in which January turned to February I walked on a small portion of the trail from an abandoned railroad observation tower in Baldwin Borough (near mile marker 144) to the Birmingham Bridge just prior to mile marker 146. I used the old observation tower as a reference marker for the southern terminus of this trip. The tower was marked with graffiti and is derelict. A large electrical outlet box on the side had its door standing ajar and it seems that birds had worked around the ends of big cables to make nests. Nearby a pair of downy woodpeckers searched the snow-laden trees for food. After two weeks of extremely cold weather, the Monongahela River was filled with ice and sections of the path were covered with well packed snow. As I walked on some of the more secluded parts of this section, I watched towboats with barges navigate and push through the ice that clogged with the river.

Pittsburgh skyline from the Hot Metal Bridge

Birmingham Bridge

Walking north the path crosses 29th Street on Pittsburgh’s Southside, adjacent to the Hot Metal Bridge. The trail in the Pittsburgh area is interesting because it takes you through many of the remnants of the city as a steel town, a sort of modern archaeological excursion. There are several places and markers denoting where steel plants once stood. A pile of railroad ties slowly disintegrating seems to point out that the decline of the industry was rapid and somewhat unexpected. 

As I walked underneath the Birmingham Bridge on Groundhog Day, people were gathering for an event known as the “Drowned Hogs.” Given Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of this harsh winter, the event probably accurately captured many people’s mood.

Renewed Manifesto

I was sitting in my office inadvertently listening to my colleague have a conversation with two female undergraduate students. It is a common occurrence; these conversations tend not to be private or sensitive. I am usually adept at tuning out such a conversation, but as the conversation continued I began to become astonished. The two young women were complaining that their lives were boring. My colleague reminded them that is was odd for a woman in her forties to give women in their twenties advice on how to have a more exciting life.  

The very next day I was driving in town and listening to the 80s radio station on Sirius/XM. One of my favorite, but rarely played, songs from the decade, Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out” came on. Jackson soon sang a favorite stanza: “We – are young but getting old before our time / We’ll leave the T.V. and the radio behind / Don’t you wonder what we’ll find / Steppin’ out tonight.” My mind immediately raced back to the overheard conversation of the previous day. Perhaps replace the word radio with internet, but essentially it was the same message. The young women were not adventuresome enough to go out and live life. It is almost as if they expected an interesting life to come, knock on their dorm room door, and invite them out.

Life is a series of explorations. We must seek our own adventures and destinations. At the beginning of each year I consider what I will do, where I will go, and what goals I will attempt. Not doing so would result in an atrophy. It is difficult to understand how people become bored for long periods of time. Exploration can be done in our own backyard. Just walking down a street. Carefully examining the world is exploration. Travelling is a state of mind.

We are too polite to tell those young women that humans are all on a quest to find meaning, self-fulfillment and excitement. Perhaps that is something we find out on our own; however, no one does it for us.