Skip to main content

The Best Place




 

Did you notice the sunset last night? 

I just happened to look out the window at just the right time. I do love the aspect of social media which allows folks to share photos of glorious sunsets, rainbows, snowy days and other exceptional moments in nature. Columbia/HoCo provides so many beautiful vistas for us to experience and be nourished by.

Several days ago a new local resident asked the following in the Columbia MD Reddit:

What are the best places to watch the sunset? Maybe the highest point? Bonus points if it’s accessible by bike and/or accessible to the public.

The question received some interesting responses, including: the second floor parking lot at Wegmans, Fairway Hills Golf Club at the 10th hole, the roof of Howard High School, and Jackson Pond. You might have some suggestions of your own. I enjoyed the conversation, especially since the topic was new to me. I’ve seen many conversations over the years about the best places to watch fireworks, for instance, but not sunsets. 

About Jackson Pond. I have an odd relationship with it. I’ve often heard locals speak positively about it. But I’ve never been able to find it. On purpose, I mean. I once found it by accident when I was picking up something from my Buy Nothing group. For some reason it remains elusive otherwise. There’s also a pond in Sewell’s Orchard, I hear. Are people who don’t live in Sewell’s Orchard welcome, or is it purely for residents?

I may be wandering into a different blog post: local ponds I haven’t visited or just plain can’t find.

In the meantime, where do you think the best HoCoLocal place is to see a sunset? Did you get a good photo last night? 





*****

A request: if you didn’t have a chance to read yesterday's post about the sale of the Baltimore Sun newspapers, take a moment today to take a look at it. If you think you have friends who’d be interested, share it. The paper’s new ownership could have a strong impact on what local communities outside of Baltimore are reading in their newspapers. With elections looming, that’s important to understand. - - jam


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more