Space - The Final Frontier
One of the smashingly good things about going to a different country is that it makes you appreciate your own backyard with greater glee than ever before. One of the things that Manhattan taught me was how lucky we are to have so much space around us. We may not think of it much, but boy oh boy, it sure struck home when you go to live in New York for a couple of weeks.
Jack and David live in what we would call a ‘cosy’ apartment. A very skinny galley kitchen, one lounge room smaller than the lady chapel, a bathroom that just fits in the necessary and nothing else and a bedroom. In New York terms, it's positively palatial.
Why, because there is only a crushingly limited amount of space.
So all the buildings just go up. Selling ‘air rights’ above your church building is a real thing and worth big socks of American dollars to parishes there.
My son-in-law David works on the 67th floor of a building and the highest we ever went up to was the 105th floor of a building. The view was astonishing and unforgettable, but it did make me think.
The next time I tootled along a Western district road I could not help but feel how lucky we are to have all this space around us. We might see it all day, every day and so have come to take it for granted, but please dear reader, never forget how fortunate we are to live where we do and in such a scenic part of the world.