Mark Marchand blog - Dispatches From Upstate NY

My love affair with bridges; soaring across the Hudson on foot

Post published:December 17, 2020

Most people consider bridges as structures built for convenience and safety. They are so ubiquitous that we take them for granted, scooting over them in cars, trucks, and trains without much thought. The only time we pay attention to them is when one of them fails spectacularly, like the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis 13 years ago. Fourteen people were killed and 145 injured in that catastrophe. In a similar disaster, a major bridge in Genoa, Italy, crumbled to the ground in 2018, killing 43. The public reaction to bridge tragedies is similar…

A nod to empathy on Election Day

Post published:November 3, 2020

I posted this on Facebook today, and I’m sharing it here: I voted for empathy in this election. Empathy is the ability to understand and share in the feelings of another human. Those who demonstrate empathy usually translate those feelings into doing something to help someone. What a noble concept.We have a vacuum of empathy in Washington, D.C. Whether it’s a president who literally denies the existence of a pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands or the Republican leadership that enables him, we need to replace him and his enablers. Now. The…

The author, running a cross-country race in fall 1972 at Chicopee Comprehensive High School in Massachusetts.

Racing to a better future

Post published:September 28, 2020

As I turned our car right to leave Stanley Park in Westfield, Massachusetts, recently, that most precious type of memory sprang to mind. The memory hadn’t surfaced for nearly half a century, and it burst forth so suddenly and dramatically I momentarily forgot I was driving a car. I was lost in a vivid recollection of an epic road race I ran in that very park back in 1972. What mattered wasn’t the race itself or the outcome. Instead, it was the decision, for the first time in my 17 years, to…

Remembering my meeting with John Lewis, the iconic civil rights warrior

Post published:July 30, 2020

The Daily Gazette newspaper in Schenectady, N.Y. published a column I wrote, recalling my meeting with John Lewis in 2013 and reflecting on his career in the wake of his passing. He was a guiding light for me, and he will be missed. GUEST COLUMN: A brush with greatness: John Lewis was a guiding light Late civil rights leader shared his wisdom July 29, 2020 For The Daily Gazette When civil rights icon John Lewis died July 17, I couldn’t help but think about how the flow of time relentlessly severs links…

The walking venture and road trip as salves for the COVID-19 blues

Post published:July 10, 2020

The notion of solo walks and road trips as a cure for the pandemic blues occurred to me as I saw an uptick recently in readers visiting my blog here. Most navigated to posts on some of my personal travel exploits, especially New York City walks across the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges and a hike from Penn Station to the Guggenheim Museum on the upper East Side. Many visitors pointed their browser to the post on the book I wrote about my long, itinerary-less drive down U.S. Route 1 from Northern Maine to Key West during the summer…