Thoughts From Two Harbors
Needless to say, I'm jealous.
As I’ve mentioned before, my sister recently moved to Two Harbors, Minnesota. She’s living in a little duplex off to side of Highway 61 (cue Bob Dylan), with a walking path nearby that travels along the shoreline of Lake Superior, and fresh air that would make even the heaviest of chain-smokers say, ‘Naw fam, I’m not trying to cosplay a Frenchman today.’
Needless to say, I’m jealous.
While I have grown to love the quaint, cute city of Des Moines, Grays Lake just doesn’t compare to the freshwater giant right outside my sister’s door.
But why? What makes the shores of Lake Superior more memorable than the (few) lakes Iowa has to offer?
Is it its sheer size? We all know that size doesn’t matter.
The fresh, non-manmade water? A pillar of nature that humankind had no part in creating? (The ice age spoke and now here it is.)
Maybe it’s that this lake is unlike any other. That seems closer to the truth. The Great Lakes are something that can never be replicated, moved, or altered.
As I sit on the shoreline, locked in the sandiness that’s already creeping inside my air tight tennis shoes, I’m struck in awe of its superior beauty. Beauty that is both clarifying and terrifying. It’s not like I haven’t been frustrated by this great lake they call Gitche Gumee. I’ve seen its waves scale dark rocks in Duluth, and heard stories of even the hardiest of swimmers compelled to wear PFD’s on its frigid surface, and the boat remains that sit in its dark depths.
So, what makes the love I have for this scary, beautiful lake so real? Maybe it’s the reminder that even the most beautiful, raw, cold, blue, dark, windy, and wild of waters are worthy of love. For someone as scared, scarred, and interruptive as me, I cradle that knowledge close to my heart.
In its wide expansiveness, there is an unchanging, unfettered dependability in Lake Superior not commonly found elsewhere. We relish the summer days when its brisk waters combat the humidity on our upper lips, and when its waters are especially strong we know to give the water space. She’s challenging, but the best and most worthwhile things usually are. My love for her is stronger because she’s entrusted me with so many of her moods.
And I do truly believe that Superior, in all its serene destructiveness is capable of love, too.
P.S. Thanks for letting me use your shower and drink your pomegranate juice, Chrissy ;)