Don't Throw Out the Baby with the Bath Water: Keep what each Decade Offers

It's a prettier spot than I saw on the South Branch Raritan today off Route 523 near Flemington, but despite what everyone else seems to say, I think water levels are great right now. The river looked beautiful, and no one fished it, nor the Neshanic River on the other side of Route 202. At any rate, I like clear water, and from my vantage in the lot above, the South Branch looked good enough to drink.

That's the Salmon River photographed. In some respects, no comparison.

As my son and I walked out the door this past Friday, I had an insight. By current social standards of cool celebrity, we could seem awful square walking out the door with snake sticks. Who goes into the outdoors to encounter creatures and photograph them?

Instead of succomb to any sort of embarrassment about it, I immediately had the idea: "Don't throw out the baby with the bath water." Each decade we pass through offers something to keep. I was born in 1960, but this was just after the 1950's when people stood ramrod straight. Developments in the 1960's progressed, and so on with each decade since, but to fail to keep what is good from each is to have learned nothing along the way.