A HOUSE--LONELY AND FORGOTTEN

     This house was photographed by my old friend, Tom Hachtel.  (Back when we were "youngins" I never guessed that he would turn into the next Ansel Adams!)  But, in this picture of an old, dilapidated shack, he has managed to capture something very special and poignant.  Although this particular house stands near to the town of Othello, Washington in the Pacific Northwest, it has a universal quality to it.  One can imagine such a house existing here in Ohio--or anywhere, for that matter.  When I first saw the photo, I was immediately reminded of a poem that I learned while I was in high school.  It is a long poem, so I will just include some of the most relevant stanzas here:

     "Now a new house standing empty, with gaping window and door,
     Looks idle perhaps and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
     But there's nothing mournful about it, it cannot be sad or lone,
     For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

     "But a house that has done what a house should do,
     A house that has sheltered life,
     That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife.
     A house that has ecoed a baby's laugh, and held up its stumling feet,
     Is the saddest sight when it's left alone that ever your eyes could meet.
                           ********
     "So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track,
     I never go by that poor old house without stopping and looking back.
     Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
     For I can't help thinking that poor old house
     Is a house with a broken heart."

    Yes, I know that the poem may be overly-sentimental and perhaps even "hokey", but I also believe that it, combined with the image so artfully-presented in my friend's photo, are very relevant to our present economy, and should remind all of us to be mindful of the sadness felt--not ACTUALLY by all the empty, foreclosed houses in our country today--but by the families who once lived in them.  Sadly, 2011 seems to be much like the 1930's that our parents and grandparents suffered through, told us about, and were forever changed by--with the loss of their homes, businesses, and possessions.
     So I ask that you contemplate the photograph, read the lines of poetry, and see if, like me, they will evoke for you the images of a long-gone era and its suffering people.
     To my readers:  Be well, and prosper!