Peak into Backyards... Take a Train Ride!

A short while back, I took a train home from a trip out of town. I like the train. I prefer it to the jolting ride and cramped quarters of a bus. There is something even nostalgically romantic about the train. It reminds me of the past, when train travel was the only way to go. Yet, this trip was different, I had an altered perspective, something on my mind.

I seem to have had Edward Burtynsky's images still resonating through my mind. With this mind-set, my view out the window seemed to focus on the endless detritus of our lives. It seems that we, as a race, prefer to dump our beat and sometimes unuseable belongings in the backyard. I was a witness to the backyard, the backlot, the empty lot, because, the train was there first. The tracks that criss-cross the land, for the most part were laid long before our recent buildings have encroached on this land. And because of this, any traveller is privy to the view of someone else's intimate life, looking at their backyard.

I saw piles of garbage, rusting hunks of cars, broken down play-gyms, roughly tossed lumber, and general disregard. It's not pretty. For the most part it seems that the design of the cities and our living on the land, has taken into account our habit of making garbage, by hiding it from view. Our streets are generally clean and, in Canada at least, most throughfares and busy streets tend to shy away from real industrial land.

We need to be reminded of our lives, of the impact of our living. Like Burtynsky's photos, a train-ride through some stretch of the land where you live, might show you more of what real life is all about, garbage, rot, and all.
- posted by the Tourist @ 14:19UTC - want to