This old homeplace stands along a road I travel frequently and I kept telling myself I was not going to take a picture of it. The main reason is that it’s one of those old houses where the heirs have built a new house right next door and somehow I just can’t digest the thought of doing that. I find it disrespectful.
Having had more than my share of opportunities to sit on front porches listening to the elderly explain how their family had made the decision to place them in a facility of some sort and nobody wanted the dilapidated structure they once called “home”, I’ve fought back tears as I’ve seen their eyes well up and observed the faraway look of yearning for their family.
When we’re young and strong we never imagine ourselves facing such circumstances. Things will be different for us, we think. The truth is we live in the midst of the abandoned and none of us is exempt. Frailty brings vulnerability and we cannot know the impact until the day we face it on a personal level.
Standing across the road capturing images I could hear the wind blowing the loose metal roof and the creaking noises of the wood. I thought how it had stood in the pouring rains the night before and wondered how the heirs could have walked out their door into the bright sunshine the next morning and viewed it.
Maybe they don’t look at it. Perhaps like the person who has trained their eyes to not meet the eyes of abandoned people on the street, they have trained their eyes to not see this structure they once called “home”.
Those of you who have read my thoughts about things like this will recall me saying, “When I see a structure like this, I think not of poverty, but of the prosperity of a disposable society.”
It occurred to me after I penned those words that we have become so wealthy we throw away houses.
— filed under ( sagegrass ) because i said that
Ruins in some countries indicate prosperity, in others decay.
— R. Anderson said that