51.

Natural Wonders

I have been to the Grand Canyon twice, but I have only seen it once. In fact, I have stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon twice but only seen it once. Come to find out, it is possible for the entire canyon, every grand inch, to fill up with fog—a fog so thick that a person can stand on an outcropping at the jagged the edge of a natural phenomenon and see nothing but solid, bright grey. As I stood there, I knew that my feet should feel tingly, the way they always do when I’m on the edge of something, but they didn’t. It’s a strange and stirring feeling to witness a natural wonder firsthand, but I think it is even stranger—and maybe even more stirring—to brush by one.

Just last week yet another natural wonder slipped by me. I flew from Tucson, AZ all the way up to Niagara, NY, spent three days there, and never got to see the falls. The entire town was quiet, wrapped in the silence of heavy snowfall, but everywhere I went the sound of rushing water echoed in my ears.

Niagara Falls provides power for states all the way down to Georgia. It is divided evenly between two countries and every year an unpublicized number of people soar over the edge, sometimes intentionally and other times not. I expected that the Niagara River would look and move like the Rhine, dark water with a frighteningly quick current. But the Niagara is deceptively calm. Large chunks of ice glide easily across a white/grey surface, contradicting the warning signs that line the shores. In the wintertime the falls must be carefully maintained to avoid ice build up, a process that involves “turning off” portions of the falls at night. I learned about its history, I watched its river flow by, I slept in a bed two miles away from it, but I left the Niagara region without seeing the falls.

I’m not sure what to think about these missed moments of grandeur. There’s a part of me that wants to make profound and insightful comments about sensing but not being able to see the powerful things around me. Or the way that missed opportunities can mean seeing new things or seeing things differently. I’m not sure what I was supposed to see instead of Niagara Falls. To be honest, the symbolic message of it all is lost at this point: those are really big freakin’ falls and I wanted to see them.