Our trip to Camden was a poignant study in contrasts today. We began by taking a boat ride down the canal. While pretty enough in its way it was also a reminder of the social divide in this country. Opulent mansions with beautifully manicured lawns with only stone and graffiti separating the grandeur from the common walkways. The graffiti a rebellion against what separates the super rich from the middle and lower classes.
In London, it's easy to get so overwhelmed by the sea of the beautiful, the unique, and the rare that we miss the less glamorous side of life. What is life like for the average person? Where, I've wondered, are the homeless? I don't have an answer for you on the latter but we know that they're there. While it may be convenient to ignore or simply not to care, the fact is we should. They are just as much a part of the real London as palaces and museums.
This picture nicely illustrates symbolically the larger contrasts we see in London. The new and beautiful building in the back, modern and reaching for the sky. The stone, castle-like structure old but unique and the graffiti on the structure's door in its shade, almost hidden but still visible. In the corner of the picture, average people walking on the canal paths, overshadowed by the grandeur of the old and the modern buildings.
Today was a reminder to look beyond what's in front of me and to look around. There are other facets to London.
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