Fear – The Ultimate Thief 6-8-10

Huntington, West Virginia

A grand aspect of distance travel is the opportunity to arrive in new places unhindered by history, experience, or bias. Cities new to me, once mere dots on maps, have their own opportunities to present first impressions – good or bad. Generally these are positive, if not filtered by our own fears.

An explorer’s game is finding out at much as possible from sometimes very short visits made to cities. Working on a cruise ship as a photographer meant I was often in cities for a mere eight hours and had only this speck of time to explore and delight in the rich tapestries of a place that has been home for millions for centuries. I soon learned to assimilate the essence of places in almost no time whatever, moving fast to get any reasonable sample of the local fare. Generally, I came away from these experiences exhausted but well filled with vast new images and memories.

Several days ago I visited Huntington, WV for the first time to participate in a wedding. Almost within moments of my arrival in the evening, my hosts provided disclaimers about how crime infested the city was, how the neighborhood had become the ‘hood, and Detroit and Chicago drug runners are running the town.

Being absolutely entranced with ‘collecting’ the beauty that exists in every place in the world, I set off at once in the morning to explore the city, quite ignorant of those areas I was supposed to stay out of. Down the center of town runs a vast emerald expanse known as Ritter Park. I found it contains a magnificent Memorial Arch to the war heroes of the Great War in 1918, an arch reminding me of Wellington’s Arch in London or the great Arch in central Paris. Here in Huntington, West Virginia? The park was also filled with happy athletes and young mothers out enjoying a Saturday morning. Various amenities such as tennis courts and kiosks were in meticulous condition. Two miles of lawns were perfectly manicured. Perhaps Detroit and Chicago have something to teach us.

Further exploration with cameras yielded images of some of the most diverse and interesting residential architecture. Hundreds of magnificent houses in dozens of styles, in perfect condition, set amidst fine gardens, surround the entirety of the park lands. I could only wish to live on one of these brick tree-lined-streets instead of my own crumbling asphalt street with its increasing number of empty houses reverting to ‘nature’.

Following a winding road along the hilltops south of the park brought me to a grand art museum with fine bronze sculptures on the grounds. On Tuesdays the museum is free, allowing access to all who would come. A large conservatory contains a resplendent collection of tropical plants.

Marshall University is embedded in downtown Huntington near the river front. Driving around the outer periphery of the campus one gets the idea Marshall might be nothing but a drab commuter school. Live on the wild side. Get out of your locked car and take a walk. The main campus consists of a double quad with the most bucolic and serene emerald sensibility. Centered there is an inspiring and evocative memorial to the 75 athletes, coaches and supporters who died in a fiery plane crash in the fall of 1970. All evidence suggests The Herd is doing just fine today. Magnificent new shopping districts surround the campus. Old buildings are being given new life.

Curiously, my hosts from this region had seen essentially none of what I showed them today. It was very strange being a guide, showing people their own town. The very largest park here, Rotary Park, was unknown to several people I asked about it, including one living here nearly sixty years. How could this be? Does fear really drive people this far inward?

After a couple of days of hearing how nasty this town is, contrary to what my eyeballs are telling me, I decided to poke around in some crime data bases to see if this place was worse than my own town. Should I really pack in my cameras and adventurer’s spirit and go hide inside, instead staring at ESPN on a plasma screen? A bit of drilling for data in per-capita-adjusted data bases revealed Huntington to be a crime-free oasis compared to the place I live presently and those I have lived in during my life. I am three times as likely to be assaulted on the street in my small southern town as I am in Huntington, WV. I am even less likely to be assaulted on the streets of Chicago. Murder happens three times as often, per capita adjusted, in Chicago as it does in Huntington.

What I came away with after poking around in the numbers is that I have a choice. I can spend Saturday in the Park, thinking about the grand images I will have forever in my memories and my image data bases or I can hide in a shrouded room, a bit jumpy at every little sound I hear outside my barricaded doors.

At one time in the past century I carefully read the news paper crime pages in my small town and spent my time quite paranoid. For years now I have instead ridden my bike at sunrise, collecting images of the beauty that is all around me, be it in Anderson, Huntington, or Chicago. To set the record straight, Chicago has some of the most glorious images of beauty in the world.

The Apostle Paul presented us with a very important choice, one that will protect us from the ultimate thief – fear. This choice determines if we live a life in serene peaceful beauty or one as a refugee in a concentration camp of paranoia.


Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.