Now And Then

You cannot help but feel when you are in a place, that the way you see the place is the way it’s always been, when you are seeing it the first time. It’s only upon returning to a place can you measure it’s rate of change. Gone an hour and there are more people there now. Gone a day and there are different things to buy in the market, gone a month or two and the weather is different. Gone a year and look they have closed the schools and universities, took down the thousand year old trees and erected a grey glass and steel tower where the young will come to be sacrificed. Okay I may overstate but not to any great degree and my view becomes more obvious. At some point a place is ripe and perfect from the viewpoint of the visitor, the transient or the foreign resident. And from the viewpoint of the people who actually were born there and raised there that time is against them or supports them. There are several balancing acts going on at any point in time, is the place ripe enough to yield fruit for all who are there or are some going to left out. It may very well be that the balance that produces the best and most secure and stable living conditions for the people who live there, makes it a deadly dull or even dangerous place for the traveller. But this is a condition of the mind. If I have to imagine conditions, I would like to imagine one where the balance of life for the people and the reward for the visitor are the same thing, where conditions produce beauty and excitement and charm for the daily life as well as the passing through.

Having stated these wishes, we will attempt to report on the places we once were, what they were then, what they were historically and what they have become on a revisit. The time span between the visits will be arbitrary. Whatever winds and occasions took away and then back again will have to do for the perspective we wish to impart. The criteria for our judgments are based on balances we have described.Is the place budding, is it ripe, or has it spoiled. The fruits of travel, harvested and inspected.