A year ago yesterday I took my bike and my camera out on a foggy early morning ride and snapped this photo of the Butler University Athletic Fields. Though not necessarily the most beautiful place in the neighborhood, I always rather enjoyed riding or walking past these grassy expanses tucked back far behind even our little Rocky Ripple neighborhood that is in and of itself an entirely out of the way place to be. It always seemed like a lush green little secret that few were privy to.
Today, we walked past these same athletic fields while out and and about on a run. The grassy expanse between the softball field and the campus garden had transformed, at some point recently, into a huge parking lot complete with dozens of towering led lamps. There were many cars, but not a living soul in sight. We decided that the parking lot must not even be for the use of the athletic fields. It was simply an overflow lot for students because the university is expanding beyond its small urban capacity. These students now have to make a wide detour around their campus, through our quiet neighborhood, and into this remote (albeit brightly-lit parking lot) and then hike quite a distance to get to anything resembling a classroom or a housing facility.
I don’t get it.
I mean, I get it. They need more space for development and so they are using what they have. But it still hurts my heart a little to know that something I had once appreciated for it’s quiet beauty is now covered in asphalt. And it is irritating to think that my neighbors will now have to endure a steady stream of inconsiderate drivers up and down in front of their houses all day.
Change is an inevitable thing. Sometimes it is a wonderful thing. And sometimes, like today, it is a bitter pill to swallow. Development and progress is often a double-edged sword.
But in all this, I remind myself to enjoy the things I have while they are still around to be seen and heard and known. And I remind myself to take plenty of photographs along the way.
