...and that is why we are afforded our grace

I'm finishing the build of our new house, and I've been thinking about a new project. I've lived in Duck for about a year and a half now, and though I've been on the Outerbanks for almost ten years, I feel that Duck is different--more removed, more isolated, more compact. I want to chronicle a year in Duck, in hopes that I can highlight the sense that I get sometimes of being a part of the world, while being separated from it. I'd planned to start this project, or whatever it will become after finishing our home. But, as I have been mulling it over in my head for that last couple months as while tiling a floor or trimming a window, I've felt compelled to somehow illustrate Duck's relationship to the wider world. Today that relationship was illustrated for me in full relief. The Boston Marathon was bombed today, while I was meeting with clients concerning a potential second home building project. As my potential client and I said our goodbyes they admonished me to take my time in getting back to them and not forget the importance of spending time with my family. I assured them that I was grateful for the work, and looked forward to putting pen to paper and finalizing their budget. I stopped off to meet a pool contractor at another job and then returned to the office to begin developing a budget proposal for the new build. Here I am completely consumed with the world of second homes, pool additions, cranes employed to move hot tubs...and there it is on my homepage "Explosions Rock Finish of Boston Marathon." How banal seems my world. I have dear friends who live in Boston and work downtown. Call or text? I texted, they are attorneys after all, and was relieved to get an all's well response. Miraculously, they were both home, with their kids, on a Monday. We all seem to take for granted why Boston, New York, Sydney, Miami,Cape Town, Norfolk, Los Angeles etc exist. Centers of population develop around ports, centers of commerce develop between them; Chicago, St. Louis, and in between them small towns. And that's where people live: big cities, or small towns, or something in between. But then there are regions set apart. Areas so beautiful or singular that people want to spend some time there. Enterprising individuals who can tolerate underemployment, sparse public services, seasonal isolation, and occasional but absolutely shit weather make these places home. And try to make a living making the visitors comfortable. We deal with serious issues here, but they are almost always uniquely local. We agonize over managing development, erosion, traffic etc. But our issues are destined to be microcosmic. We are affected by, and shaped by the events of the world around us, and at the same time unaffected. Maybe the world needs places like Duck, and that is why we are afforded our grace. Bostonians will visit us this summer, and I hope they don't remember the bombs, for a week or so. I hope, in this blog, to explore this idea further. A year in Duck. What's going on here, what's going on out there, and how are they related, or not.