Seas or not, I love the lakes and the land around them, in the 20+ years since I moved myself here they've taken over my heart. I'm from the aspen parkland of central Alberta; thin trees, dry air, small muddy leach-infested kettle lakes, big skies, poplar and birch land. When I was 8 we did a trip across Canada, and I remember us camping by the shores of Superior when a massive thunderstorm came rolling in, and it left a lifelong impression on me. When I was 16 I did an exchange with a family in rural Ontario near Huron, and the moment I saw the rolling green hills, the maples and oaks, the cyan waters of Huron lapping against the limestone, the heavy humid air, the wild grapes crawling on every fence, I was sold. In my early 20s I moved to Toronto for work, and I've been near Lake Ontario since. I'm an atheist, a materialist... but there's something deeply spiritual about the Great Lakes, powerful and intimidating like the ocean but more accomodating in their fresh water and the fact that massive as they are, they're more finite than the ocean. My wife participated in an archaeological dig down on some low flat lands near the shore, on a calm inland bay near here some years ago. The ceramic cookware, the copious fish bones, the arrowheads and fish hooks, it was fascinating how the lake has been giving rich life to people here for thousands of years; in fact so diminished now from what it was then when fish were more abundant.
They're pretty awesome, these lakes. I am not sure people who grow up next to them (like my kids) appreciate what they are in the same way?
They're pretty awesome, these lakes. I am not sure people who grow up next to them (like my kids) appreciate what they are in the same way?