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Tuesday, September 3, 2024

The Spot

Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada
aka the Horseshoe Falls
This is the spot. 

My wife and I attended a wedding north of Toronto recently, so we used the opportunity to visit Niagara Falls. Since she had never been to the Falls, we did everything we could in an afternoon: rode the funicular down the escarpment to the river, took the boat tour (so much fun!), braved the thongs of tourists tasting maple syrup, bought the requisite t-shirts, and paid $15 for a small bag of chocolate almonds at a store I'm sure was named The Tourist Trap. It was a lovely day. But I was waiting to get to "the spot."

With my parents and older brothers, I visited Niagara Falls decades ago when I was 11(?) and snapped a photo in this spot. Although I don't recall much from that first visit, I do remember it was early on January 1, and thus a thoroughly different tourist experience. Essentially we were the only people there that morning. 

I remember how it felt, for me: powerful, beautiful, alive. Yet my Dad looked over the edge and said in his characteristically deep and slow voice, "it's just a bunch of dirty water falling off a cliff." My Dad was often reductive, but I suspect his particular disdain that morning was due to the fact that he had just spent a week with his older sister, a person I observed during that visit (from afar) with equal fascination and fear. She was scary. 

So what was so special about revisiting this spot? Reflecting on it now, I have no idea. Before we arrived, I guess I was hoping to feel something...special? There's an alchemy that sometimes occurs when revisiting childhood places, reinhabiting sentimental spaces, a kind of emotional time travel experience that can be especially meaningful and deepen those experiences. Right?  

Nope. Not this time. My tone may seem negative, but that's not my intention: just being honest.

I wanted this spot to say something, mean something, signify something (explain something). Despite my magical thinking, there were no voices from the past or explanations about long-ago hoped-for happiness, nor new connections or understandings. There were better feelings though: gratitude for this experience with my wife, gratitude for the time and resources to travel, gratitude for my life now. Being able to unapologetically marvel at life!

The Falls have changed and so have I. Erosion is inevitable and the Falls have been reshaping themselves for thousands of years. All progress is typically upstream. 

I think longing for "the spot" was about discovering something that never was. It's one of my romantic default bad habits: revisiting the past hoping to write a better narrative. Although I often continue searching there, happiness is not in the past; it's right now. Shakespeare may have said "what's past is prologue," but a happy epilogue makes for a great story too. 

8 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Isn't there a saying that you can never step in the same river twice? I think that applied here.

Anonymous said...

Codex: Revisiting a childhood moment and expecting that same sense of awe through the eyes of an adult can be disappointing. And yet cherish the moment that was there at the time and the new one you created.

Anonymous said...

Please check mail

Kathy G said...

Profound thoughts this morning.

Anvilcloud said...

They are awesome, but they don't always feel awesome, and I don't know why. Is it the touristy aspect? Perhaps it is that once you've seen it, you've seen it. So what is next? I dunno.

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

So there you are making me think. Darn you. :-) I'm sorry it wasn't what you thought or hoped for. I've been to the Falls so many times I can't even count (Candian side) I'm sorry to say it brings me fond memories, but then again I haven't been there since 1982.

jenny_o said...

Good observation that happiness is right now.

37paddington said...

"There were better feelings though: gratitude for this experience with my wife, gratitude for the time and resources to travel, gratitude for my life now. Being able to unapologetically marvel at life!"

It seems you got the gift after all, just not wrapped in the way you expected.

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