The Glass Temple of Worcester

By Craig: What was it? Was it a monster? A giant monolith emerging from the bowels of the earth? It had massive mechanical arms that moved and lifted cars and people up with very little effort, swallowing them whole! It appeared to be made out of glass, and was getting taller with every single day...until eventually...it was the tallest thing on the horizon.

I was around four or five years old when these juvenile thoughts floated through my immature brain. I was processing information the best way that a five year old could. Of course it was only a fiction...a distortion of facts...an erroneous translation due to a five year olds limited knowledge and experience of the natural world. In reality the glass monster that appeared to be rising like a phoenix from the earths mantle and wreaking terrible destruction and mayhem on the unfortunate inhabitants in the distance was none other than the construction of the Worcester County National bank in downtown Worcester Massachusetts. (How's that for a long sentence?) This was in 1972...or perhaps 1973. The glass tower is now known as Worcester Plaza. The giant moving arms were cranes. The I-beams and other mechanical things being lifted were interpreted by my five year old mind to be cars and people. It didn't matter to me then. I wanted no part of that horror that was occurring on the horizon!

At the time that this glass skyscraper was being constructed I was living with my parents and twin brother in my grandfathers triple decker on Queen St. across from the now defunct City hospital where I had been born. I recall sitting on the back porch attempting to make sense of the gargantuan world beyond the safe confines of my grandfathers house. I sensed danger beyond the porch. Out in the street cars flew by, honking their horns while sirens blew from ambulances on a regular basis, coming and going from the place of sickness and death. I sensed brutality...chaos...mayhem. This was the violent world to which I had been born. This was the world in which I would have to survive. My notions of this world haven't changed much in the forty or so years since I first developed them. Only my courage to face this busy and convoluted environment has improved, and this, of course developed over time.

I now realize and understand with a sort of reluctance that this is the way of the universe...our universe. It is hostile, and violent at the core. It starts with the primordial elements and works its way up. One only has to look a hydrogen atom within the confines of our own sun to see the constant struggle of nature. Hydrogen atoms bombarding each other, fusing together in an explosive state to form helium atoms. If this is how the universe is constructed than why should we as humans be any different? We are born into this violent cataclysm! It is our condition in the state of normalcy. The universe is not a peaceful place. Why does a baby cry when it is removed from its mothers womb? Why does it not smile? or even laugh? Does it unconsciously sense the barbarous environment in which it has been cast? Every moment there is a struggle of the elements around you. Even as I write this within the relatively safe confines of my house, while sipping on a refreshing cup of hot coffee, I sense danger. It is in the wind...the sky...the distant sound of booming thunder...a gunshot...the fat toad in its aquarium is on edge...feeling safe under its plastic igloo. As for myself?...I am ready to turn in for the night...locking the doors and making sure that my fighting stick and bayonet are within reaching distance from my bed...I might just as well be on the back porch in Worcester...forty years and 900 miles away sitting on my long dead grandfather's lap listening to his dreams, and watching a giant monster with mechanical arms warn me of the future...I see it still...