Miracles

Brewerton – Brockport, via Fair Haven, New York

I know the Middle East is usually the place most associated with acts of God, but I think maybe Upstate New York deserves a little more attention on this front.

Let’s start with Joseph Smith. Mr. Smith was a farmer in Palmyra – a town between Rochester and Syracuse – in the early-19th century when he had a vision in which God and Jesus appeared. Then, a few years later, an angel named Moroni paid him a visit and told him about some golden tablets that might be in the vicinity. Joseph subsequently found these tablets in his back yard, and, after a few years, once he convinced Moroni to let him take the tablets, he translated them into the Book of Mormon, which allowed him to start the Church of Latter Day Saints. 

We had lunch in the town of Marion today – only a few miles from Palmyra. You could almost feel the holiness of the area. Or it could have been indigestion – but either way it was fun to know that we were so close to history. 

Then there’s the town of Oneida – just a few miles north of Hamilton, where we stayed with Carolyn and Chris. A guy named John Humphrey Noyes started a Bible Socialist society in Oneida in 1848. Never heard of Bible Socialism? That’s okay – not sure it’s really survived . . .

The Oneida folks believed that Christ had already returned to Earth in the year 70 A.D. I guess I don’t completely understand the implications of that, but apparently this allowed people to live a sin-free life. Sounds pretty good.

But there was more to it than that. I guess anyone in the Oneida society could have sex with anyone else at any time. No marriage or anything. Older women were assigned to initiate young boys into sexual activity, and older men were assigned to the young women – though they were apparently supposed to avoid impregnating the girls. 

Not sure why they ever thought that this would work – but by 1880 the religion and the strange sexual practices were done. Of course, that wasn’t the end of the venture. What had started out as an experiment in socialism ended in a highly successful entrepreneurial venture. You can still buy Oneida silverware – and the company is still based in this little town. 

Interestingly, the same year that the Oneida experiment was starting – 1848 – the first women’s rights convention was happening in nearby Seneca Falls, New York. Seneca Falls went on to become the center of the suffrage movement, which resulted in an actual, true miracle: when, in 1920, women were granted the right to vote. 

Then there’s the Erie Canal. A miracle of engineering – the canal connected Lake Erie in Buffalo to the Hudson River in Albany. 

Kind of a big deal. 

The Canal was instrumental in opening the American West, it spurred massive economic growth for New York and the Midwest, and it helped make New York City into the nation’s premiere seaport. 

The Canal opened in 1825 – right around the time that Joseph Smith was negotiating with Moroni so that he could take the golden plates. 

Something must have been in the air back then. 

The Canal is still around today – but commercial traffic died out in the mid-20th Century. These days, the towpaths that the horses used to use to pull the barges have been transformed into bike and walking trails. And the only boats left on the canal are of the pleasure variety: fishing boats and yachts, along with a variety of houseboats – kind of Iike what we saw in England – only the boats are wider because the waterway is much bigger.

Now, we’re not establishing any new religions, or starting any political movements, but we had kind of a miraculous day ourselves. We made it 83 miles – with 3,500 feet of elevation – making it arguably the biggest day of our trip. (I think we biked 90 miles one day in Chile – but pretty sure that was much flatter – and with the wind at our back.) 

We started the day on Lake Ontario and finished on the Erie Canal. We connected with the son of our friends from Arkansas – Gunnar and Maria – exactly one year to the day after we landed at their home in Little Rock. 

Said son, Sebastian, started medical school at the University of Rochester a month or so ago – and he was gracious enough to take a few hours off from studying to bike with us this afternoon. It’s always fun to see where young people choose to go with their lives. But it’s especially fun when you’ve seen them grow up. 

Seems like just a few years ago that Sebastian and our daughter Ellie were making snow forts together.

Then he was an awkward young teenager who was really into magic. Then a smart and kind college student with a talent for cycling. And now a confident, handsome young man who is well on his way to becoming a great  physician.  

Of course, the day was not all good. With both Sebastian and Jon along, we were like a regular bike pack out there. And riding in a pack is always more fraught than riding alone. And that concern is amplified when you ride on bike trails because they’re narrow, there is two-way traffic, and there are random barriers around. 

Poor Jon fell victim to all of this when, just after we started on the Empire Trail along the Canal, he collided with this dumb gate thing on the path. Fortunately, there was no real permanent damage. He bent his handlebars and scraped his arm, but in the end I think it was his ego that took the brunt of it.

Then there’s our campsite tonight. Right in town. Right on the Canal. Our own private bath and shower. Nice grass. No big RVs around. A hundred yards to a dinner place. Nice picnic tables. All for $5.

Jon found the place. Like an act of God itself!

One more miracle to mention. Thanks to Diana’s best childhood and high school friend, Katrina, we spent the night at their beautiful home on Lake Ontario in Fair Haven, NY. It was a wonderful evening – complete with a swim in the eastern-most of the Great Lakes (not that cold even), a polka band and brats in Fair Haven, and lots of fun, laughing, and reminiscing. 

Barring some catastrophe, tomorrow we make our way to Niagara Falls and cross into Canada – the fortieth country on the trip. It will be a bittersweet day, as Jon is scheduled to hop the train back to Brooklyn – meaning we’ll be on our own for the trip across Canada, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

Still having a wonderful time – but it is also nice to know that we are making good progress back to Minnesota . . .