Empty platforms in the sky

Where'd everybody go?
Montreal, QC
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I remember the moment well when I took this picture: Out for a walk in the neighborhood around my father-in-law’s hospital, as the sun quickly dipped toward the horizon, the sky a brilliant blue, the air crisp and clear, the bone-chilling wind turning my fingers blue every time I pulled my gloves off to take a picture.

I went to university not far from here, taking the bus through this neighborhood every day to and from class - and later on driving past in my very first car. When it worked.

At the time, I remember looking up at the balconies you see here and thinking how odd it was that no one used them. Abandoned platforms in the sky. In winter I could understand. But even in the summer, they remained empty.

The highest home I’ve ever lived in was a 6th floor apartment, and my wife and I used the balcony so rarely that I no longer remember what it looked like. So maybe the residents of this building were onto something.

But staring at this much taller structure with no one in sight, it still struck me as an opportunity lost, a missed moment within countless lifetimes where such moments weren’t infinite, but those living them seemed oblivious to that fact.

Maybe it’s a little scary to venture out past the patio door, to where it feels like you’re going to freefall into busy Sherbrooke Street below if you’re not absolutely careful. But it’s even scarier to have never ventured out there at all. Because to live without even a little flutter in your stomach, without that extra bit of late-afternoon light on your face, seems like a bit of a waste.

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