I recently retired
after a 32-year career, 30 of which I worked for the Federal government. Most
of my Federal time was spent working for the U.S. Geological Survey. I loved my
time at the Survey. I worked with a fantastic group of people on a fantastic
journey to predict what hurricanes would do to our nation’s coastlines. I often
saw the impact of many of these storms before. The diversity of the changes
along the shore when one of these storms made landfall were varied and heartbreaking,
for individuals as well as the environment. And yet, Nature always recovered,
or she found a new path. Her resilience is inspiring and beautiful to
watch. She doesn't bemoan the loss of a marsh buried in sand or the break
in an island. She returns to the path she was on, or creates a new one. It is
we who build our castles and expect them to last forever.
A barrier island is,
by nature, designed to move. It rolls over upon itself in retreat from storm
surge. Sand from the beach or dunes is washed over the island and deposited in
a new location. That new deposit becomes habitat for new communities. A loss in
one location becomes a new beginning in another. Nature will adjust to the
change and continue on. It will do the same as sea level rises. It has always
shifted; it will always continue to do so... or at least try.
It is only when we
build fixed structures on our coastlines that we realize how truly dynamic this
system is. We build castles on sand dunes and expect the sea to leave them
untouched. It doesn't, and it never will. To believe it will do so is a fool's
errand. Our planet is dynamic and the ground we stand on is always shifting. We
can't always perceive that shift, but at our coastlines we can often see
the changes right before our eyes. Sometimes year to year, sometimes in the
blink of an eye.
We can learn a lot
from Mother Nature. She is fickle and ever changing. Our lives, like the ground
we stand on, is ever shifting, no matter how much we wish things were the way
they were before. We don't always recognize the change as it happening, as
it is usually slow in most places. But sometimes the change is sudden and
catastrophic. And when that happens, we sit up and take notice.
Sometimes it’s hard to
keep up, to find that steady ground on which to stand and catch our breath, to
find our center and get our feet beneath us. Technology changes are coming
at an ever-increasing speed. Political changes are sometimes faster than, or
not as fast as, we'd hope. The climate is changing in ways we can't fully
predict. Knowing and excepting things will not always be the way they were
will help. If we learn not to build our castles on sand dunes, we will be more resilient,
and recover more quickly from change, planned or not, in our lives.
Why Chapter 3? We
like to divide our time into segments, be that our day, our week, our year, or our
life.
I see the first
chapter of my life as the time from when I was born until I graduated from
college. It was a time of learning, and growing. A time when everything was new
and changing. It was what I expected and I shifted with those sands easily.
Chapter 2 spans my
working career. I didn't change jobs as often as most people and sometimes
resisted it. I started by working for the Department of Defense right out of
graduate school, worked a short time in private industry, then returned to the
Department of Interior for nearly 29 years. My time there, with the Survey, was
always changing and evolving. Each year brought new challenges and changing
times. No two were the same. Those who were there before me left, and new faces
joined the Center. Times were busy and times were slower. The work was always
interesting and carried with it the satisfaction that I was doing something
that helped protect lives and property by understanding what had happened in
the past, and using that knowledge to predict what would happen in the future.
But as steady as those sands have been, the sands there were shifting,
too.
It comes down to this: My sands, our sands, are shifting. The
work at the Survey will continue, just as a highway continues across the
landscape. I have chosen to exit the ramp presented to me. The sign
beside the road says "Chapter 3" and points in a different direction
across a landscape we've not traveled before. The work at the Survey is no
less important because I have stepped aside. Many capable and talented people
will continue on. My path is a different one now, though I will continue to
follow their progress for a long as I can see them, and that will be a long
time indeed.
Edward and I have
planned for this for some time. We have set out on this path perhaps a little
earlier than others before us. We are ready. The ground is by no means completely solid,
but we hope it will be more like the Rockies then Jockey's Ridge. We have set
out guide posts to help us on our journey, we have our walking sticks to steady
ourselves when we encounter the unexpected, and we are ready for this next
chapter in our lives.
"Two roads diverged in a
wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
- Robert Frost
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