Windswept Farm
Kodak EasyShare Z730
2020
As I’ve gone on long bike rides out into the country this summer, I’m struck by how many barns have dates on them from 100 or more years ago.
I admire the stability of the farms these barns represent. I wish I could have had that kind of stability in my life. Instead, I chose badly the first time I got married, and after that marriage ended I fell in love again and remarried. I’ve lived in far more places than I ever anticipated. Everything about my life has felt temporary.
My parents, in contrast, bought a home in 1976 and lived in it until 2014. I always thought that’s just how my life would go, too. Alas.
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Jim, I feel the same way, when I was a child we moved on the average of one a year. Sometimes it was only a couple blocks away, but still no sense of stability.
When I remarried we bought a place in the country ten miles outside of Lafayette where we have lived for 31 years now, and i love the sense of permanence and tradition that it gives knowing that something I placed in the barn 25 years ago is still there.
Some people adapt well to frequent moves and some don’t. My first wife was a military brat who loved moving every few years. She said she got to reinvent herself with every move.
I am happy I chose Margaret and glad we get to make a life together, even though it’s been far harder than either of us could imagine. One thing that has taken a back seat to all the hard stuff is making our house a home. I’ve lived here three years and we’re not settled yet. I have a hard time with the temporary nature of it.
“temporary” is perhaps another term for recognition that we all get but one visit to this amusement park. Enjoy the ride you’re on and hold on tight to your dreams, but when you see the bolts coming loose, it’s time to move on.
Aren’t old barns the evidence of a fascinating technological history!
The trick is learning to recognize when the bolts are coming loose.
I love Barns and photograph them often. I grew up in the same house on the same street. My mom lived there until ~2010. Life just isn;t that stable anymore.
It’s a shame that it isn’t.