I've zoomed in to share the pretty view from my window and the roof deck - the boats in the harbor, the skyline of Manhattan, the way the pink looks in the sky during a late autumn sunset - but haven't mentioned the stalled construction project going on just below. Brooklyn Bridge Park is an elaborate plan to turn the East River waterfront right below me into an amazing 85 acre park stretching from Manhattan Bridge to Atlantic Avenue. When completed, the park will have playgrounds, fishing piers, a sailing marina, tennis courts, biking paths, basketball courts, a paddling zone for kayaks and multi-purpose playing fields for soccer, lacrosse and other field sports.
Since I moved in, I've had a direct view of things and have barely seen one worker during the past month here. I've made a few comments to Stacy that one person spraying down concrete doesn't seem to bode well for the park to be completed in July of 2010.
Though...doubtful and cynical comments aren't typically my nature, and while clever in others, in me they really don't suit. Friends in both New York and San Francisco used to call me "Charlotte" - referring to the eternal optimist from "Sex and the City" who, besides having a milder and more traditional way about her, had an unshakable romantic view of the world. Life has its bumps, disappointments happen but Charlotte always had hope, and believed in possibilities.
The other morning I was on a 'beach walk' on the Brooklyn Promenade and looked at the lifeless site below, but started to look around the bend. Besides seeing the cluster of trees that were apparently purchased last March (that honestly seemed a very long way away from being planted in dirt and grass as we are headed into winter months)... I looked at the construction site and saw for the first time the vision of what things could be, and believed it could happen.
A few weeks ago, Seth Godin wrote in a post about "Enormity": ...Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down. Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies and you won't get a bigger donation, you'll just get averted eyes. If you've got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked. If you've got a generational problem, something that is going to take herculean effort and even then probably won't pan out, we're going to move on in search of something smaller..."
Quite a lot of things can often look enormous, and just seem too impossible to try to change and start construction on. Repairing relationships, turning around a troubled company (or nation), digging out from crippling debt, believing in a family of your own after several miscarriages, restarting your life after a several year hiatus, staring down a disease that has shown up again, unwanted. Arguably, empty piers on the other side of the river from Manhattan that requires significant funding for transformation, is also an enormous leap of faith during a season of too many new projects and open hands, and too little money to go around.
A few weeks ago, Seth Godin wrote in a post about "Enormity": ...Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down. Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies and you won't get a bigger donation, you'll just get averted eyes. If you've got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked. If you've got a generational problem, something that is going to take herculean effort and even then probably won't pan out, we're going to move on in search of something smaller..."
Quite a lot of things can often look enormous, and just seem too impossible to try to change and start construction on. Repairing relationships, turning around a troubled company (or nation), digging out from crippling debt, believing in a family of your own after several miscarriages, restarting your life after a several year hiatus, staring down a disease that has shown up again, unwanted. Arguably, empty piers on the other side of the river from Manhattan that requires significant funding for transformation, is also an enormous leap of faith during a season of too many new projects and open hands, and too little money to go around.
Of course on a larger scale, there's the construction that's essential to combat destruction if our society is to evolve: bringing fresh water to the one in six people on the planet who don't have it; bringing food to 1.5 million New Yorkers who have to chose every month between buying food or paying rent; standing for forgotten animals who can't speak for themselves; stopping the rate of destruction in Amazon Rainforest - an environment that houses over three quarters of all living things on earth - where an area of forest the size of one U.S. state is being burnt to the ground every single year. From the very personal to the global, its easy to see how we can shut down, how many problems can be as bleak as empty construction sites.
However, this week, progress (slow but still something) began below. Stacy came over yesterday and expected a remark from me about the park when I surprised her by saying "I've been hearing activity down there all week!" and showed her the big pile of dirt that was new. Stacy first looked at me, and then went to the window to check out the progress thru my new eyes. Looking at the picture above, I now see that the big pile of dirt has been there all along, though I do think it has started to look a little bigger...
We all have roles in this life, and given the equipment inside, once it finally dawns on us that purpose and happiness are truly intertwined. Some of us have that entrepreneurial vision, who first imagine the idea and see the glimmer of possibility. Some are given big brains, tenacity and courage to make that vision happen. Some have over-sized benevolent hearts, and help fund far-out projects like this or start-up companies making new products that ultimately add to the quality of life of many others. Some of us are the peace-makers, the negotiators, the ambassadors of bridging conflict and opposing agendas inside nations, cities, companies and sometimes inside immediate families. Even others are the teachers, the builders, the nurturers, the healers, the scientists and helpers; as well as the creators, the entertainers and joy-makers. And some of us need to be the Charlottes, who hope. Whose job it is to believe in the potential in the pile of dirt and tell others it will happen, even when it looks too soon to tell.
We all have roles in this life, and given the equipment inside, once it finally dawns on us that purpose and happiness are truly intertwined. Some of us have that entrepreneurial vision, who first imagine the idea and see the glimmer of possibility. Some are given big brains, tenacity and courage to make that vision happen. Some have over-sized benevolent hearts, and help fund far-out projects like this or start-up companies making new products that ultimately add to the quality of life of many others. Some of us are the peace-makers, the negotiators, the ambassadors of bridging conflict and opposing agendas inside nations, cities, companies and sometimes inside immediate families. Even others are the teachers, the builders, the nurturers, the healers, the scientists and helpers; as well as the creators, the entertainers and joy-makers. And some of us need to be the Charlottes, who hope. Whose job it is to believe in the potential in the pile of dirt and tell others it will happen, even when it looks too soon to tell.
Lots of work - all roles needed.
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