Lums Pond State Park

Fall leaves, open trails, and a pond.

While Delaware only has three counties, and the state as a whole is smaller than some counties out west, there are numerous state parks to visit. There is Cape Henlopen, where Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet. There is Delaware Seashore, which has its original sand dunes and miles of beach that you can enjoy. There are also ones up north, such as Auburn Valley and White Clay Creek. But the one we went to on this fall day was Lums Pond.

Lums Pond is Delaware’s largest freshwater pond. The pond was built in the 1700s, and then was used in the 19th century for the C&D (Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River) Canal. If you want more information, the park has a Wikipedia page, as well as a page dedicated to it by Delaware State Parks.

That reminds me of how, growing up in high school and as undergraduates, teachers and professors told us (the students) that we could not use Wikipedia. It was considered cheating and not reliable. However, how many of us in the professional world stalk celebrities and their interests through Wikipedia? But now AI, such as ChatGPT (I call it Chatty), Gemini (Google’s AI that once told me 6 was greater than 7), and others are going to be the end of civilization as we know it. Well, I do believe that, but only because we are going to depend on AI too much.

While AI is a powerful tool, people should remember it is a tool. I think it is no better or worse than my film camera (currently the Voigtlander Bessa R2) or my iPhone 14 Plus (for making calls). I think of it as a more accurate Google. Instead of Googling something and spending the time to find the answer, Chatty is able to give me a more reliable answer. However, I use it to help springboard my ideas, format my reports, and solve issues that get in the way of my ideas.

However, what I expect is that companies will go all in with AI. Soon, your doctor will be a robot, and you will have to hope that the black box that is running it doesn’t make some wrong calculation. The scary part is that you will not know the calculation. Or the basis of their idea. And while it was only a few months ago that Google’s AI was sure that six sugar cubes were greater than seven sugar cubes, too many companies rely on this AI to replace real human beings.

But we shouldn’t go off on a tangent tonight. I have not posted in the past two weeks, mostly because I was quite busy. I walked across the stage this past week at UD (after graduating with my MPA this past December), and am getting ready for another move in just a few weeks. However, I am always glad to look back at my videos and remember simpler times.

In general, everything in the past was simpler. That is because in the present, or in the future, you will know more than you did in the past, making life more complex. Also, looking back on life with 20/20 vision will make things seem more clear-cut. But in truth, life is always complex. We just forget what we have gone through.

So this past fall (2024), my wife and I ventured to Lums Pond State Park. Lums Pond is not too far from where we live (Newark, Delaware), and is far enough away that it is quite empty when it’s not summer. I remember when we first arrived and we saw a crane standing still in the water, waiting for fish to swim by so it could grab an early meal. The beauty of the crane, the calmness of the water, and the color of the trees made it seem like it was from some Zen den to meditate.

As you can see in the video, we walk down the trails (the trails go around the entire lake, something we have not fully walked yet) before coming back and watching the water move with the wind. Because it was fall, the area was deserted except for those who were training for a marathon or people fishing from the docks. We have been to Lums Pond a few times, usually in summer or fall. Because of the number of trees that circle the lake, every angle of the shore will guarantee a wonderful fall picture.

So here it is, my Lums Pond State Park video, including a rant about companies using AI, while trying to think about how wonderful this day was. If I were to leave Delaware, this pond would be one of the things I would miss seeing as I drive by the C&D Canal (it is next to Summit Bridge, on the north side). But that is also okay, because we can never stop looking forward in life. I always say, my future self will be the best version of myself, because I truly believe it. That is always something that brings me hope for the future. My future self. My hope.