Routine

There is something comforting about routine. It is familiar, and everything is expected. We are such creatures of comfort, this human race. By this, I prove I am human. I get up each day at the same time, eat breakfast at the same time, go to work (either data entry or site visits) at the same time, eat lunch at the same time and go to class. World without end.

And then something happens that stirs us out of routine. I find a beautiful church that isn't on my lists, and break routine and procedure to go visit it. Or I meet a friendly person and talk for fifteen minutes. Or, for some strange reason, I get almost nothing done but have a great time talking about religion and architecture with my boss. Variation in the midst of routine is what makes life interesting. If my life had no routine, I would panic. But if it had only routine, I would stultify. It is balance that keeps me alive.

And so, on Monday I went to Niagara Falls to visit churches. The depopulation has reached advanced stages in that former boomtown. Whole streets are deserted. Almost every house for blocks on end is boarded up. In some neighborhoods, all I could hear were the birds singing in their nests in the roofs. What had once been a thriving city was now a ghost town with a casino and a national park.

That was a sobering visit. Unlike Buffalo, where people are increasingly not going to church, in Niagara Falls there are not enough people for the churches that exist. Even if everyone went, the churches would still be half empty. It is a desolate place. Was this what the fall of Rome was like?

This is a different type of depressed area. Niagara Falls is not a slum town. It is hard to believe, but squalor is a sign of a healthy city. The city is alive and thriving enough for plenty of people to visit, and decide to stay, despite the squalor. It conjures up the thought that home is worse, so stay in the squalor.

But Niagara Falls is empty. It is wilderness despite the presence of roads and buildings. There is no such thing as a slum in Niagara Falle because no one is willing to pay them price to live there. And why should they? Supposedly, they had a job once in Niagara Falls, but I think the position has been filled.

There is of course some light in the darkness. It is not all bad. Tourism keeps a few restaurants open and a few kitschy businesses running. From the ashes, a village or a town will arise. But the boom days are gone. Forever.