BLAIR’S VIEW

At the Millennium,

We embraced the internet and broke free from former routines.

We looked forward to new challenges and new adventures.

Sparked by Jacqui’s literary inspiration and her love of the environment, we started on the shores of Lake Michigan - a lake that is a jewel, but too long disregarded and defiled with toxins. It is far from the West Coast and the East Coast, but large and important as the Third Coast of the United States.

There are public parks on and near Lake Michigan. Looking at these and their values – Jacqui focused on environmental protection, recreation, habitat. In the process, she came to realize that parks as public domains are part of a long tradition of preservation passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes one person takes the oar, sometimes a group, but the inspiration comes from deep, ancestral wells, from the allegiance of stewardship to the earth.

Park creation gave the inspiration to look at some of the great parks in the world, and this led to Paris, with over 400 parks, large and small, within its boundaries. How did that happen? Who did it? When? Why?  

The most important thread in this weave of interests is family. In the United States, we’re mostly all immigrants or descendants of immigrants.  Where did they come from? Why did they leave those places? We can see the places where our forebearers lived and try to imagine their lives there. Enormous forces must have been at work to pry them away. What forces were those?

Questions like these led us to look into the past times of Europe, delving into the archaeological record left behind. What does that search tell us about life, family, and society? Why is that so different from what we are taught?

We are still looking ahead.