Artificial, pt. 1

I want to believe that if we care enough, our capacity for awe won’t diminish over time, but perhaps just change its nature.

About a year ago, I drove down to the base of the massive Verrazano-Narrows Bridge near Manhattan. At this point, I knew that in order for it to be built in 1964 — the longest suspension bridge in the world then — Tacoma Narrows needed to crumble on a windy day in 1940, Mr. Roebling Jr. had to suffer from bends from the Brooklyn Bridge’s caissons, and those weird laid back people of San Francisco came so close to witnessing Golden Gate Bridge painted in… black and yellow stripes. And so, so much more.

The Verrazano wasn’t awesome just because it was a giant bridge, but because we know how to build bridges now — and if we could construct something so impressive fifty years ago, imagine the things that we will build fifty years hence, when I’m a grumpy old man wearing a grumpy old fedora.

What then if I make it a resolution for me, and a wish for you: to continue finding new ways to be in awe, as often as possible, forever.