7 December

Back In The Country

by Jon Katz

After spending several hours in the noise and bustling classrooms of Bishop Maginn High School, Maria and I were ready to head for home and the quiet of our loves.

About 40 minutes out of Albany, we turned off a highway and almost magically entered the peace and beauty of the country. The sun was coming down and it was getting dark, the beautiful road would soon be invisible to us.

But I asked Maria – she was driving –  to stop the car so I could get out and take a picture.

We both let out a sigh and looked at one another.

We have always loved cities; I lived in the towns for most of my life.  But we could not live in them anymore. The country is beautiful, peaceful, full of nature and life.

People are no better or worse than city people, but we usually come to know each other, which softens life in many ways.

There is no paradise; our farm is not one, our town is not one. But it is home for us, and we need safety, beauty, stillness, and solitude. We need the natural world; we need beautiful roads like this to tell us we are close to home.

3 Comments

  1. I love this photo! A few days ago, I heard on NPR that 83 percent of people in the United States live in cities. So, only 17 percent of us live in the rest of our country. It’s always good to see your photos in the country!

  2. We live just outside of town, in the woods, and my neighbors and I love it so much! There are dark skies! There are times of utter quiet. We watch so many aspects of the changes of the seasons. So wonderful.

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