The Settlers of Setback Bay
Morning Thoughts #193
We are the people of the tidal marsh, living in the age of ever-muddy bays! Trudging our way across paths that never dry, but that also lack enough current to wash us away. Oh, inescapable land that seems unsuitable for even the simplest building project! Why us, why here?
Are you worried because it seems that your life, as it currently stands, is in no way built up? “These forever-wavering tides,” you say as you beckon towards them, “how could I manage anything more?”
Yes, friends, our generation comprises a tidal bay. The future seems nebulous, and that is for good reason: we were born to unstable lands, and, as things now stand, nothing of great heights can be constructed here and be expected to last long. But this was something we learned only through failure. Oh, Setback Bay! That is the first name we gave to our native land. Friends, remember our initial efforts? Anything that went up seemed to go doubly down!
Oh, marshy land that drains and then flows back, creating an environment unsuitable for any kind of ambitious construction projects. Finally, we see it for what it is!. And as this realization truly sets in, we come to the decisive fork. What do we do? Does this become our identity? Are we simply the people of the tidal bay? Do we cease building because nothing can be built? Do we passively accept our fate, with good conscience, because the tidal bay chose us, not the other way around? Or do we conceive of something greater—do we decide upon the beginning of a monumental land reclamation project?
Yes, we have decided! We will look toward the hills in the distance (oh, hills of our once proud history!) and enact a new plan, digging and then transporting dirt, oh, endless dirt, crying out, “Those hills must be moved!”
And don’t think we will just be relocating the same hills! No, those hills will be our base! We’re borrowing their substance, not their heights! The heights will be our own, homemade! We will move mountains only to have something to build our own mountains on! Oh, mountains of the past, I want to feel you beneath my feet at sea level!
And we will, friends—someday we will.