It seems to be a general rule of thumb that land (the physical dirt and rock solidness of earth) is pretty stationary. Land doesn’t usually move around much; I do. Michigan would never wake up one morning and decided that it was tired of being in the Midwest and was going to join its friend Florida down South. Sure, there’s all that tectonic earth plate movement stuff, the rumors that our beloved California will fall into the ocean, the occasional volcano, mudslide, tsunami, or other enormous calamity that rearranges the landscape, but, relatively speaking, geography is one of life’s few constants.

Unless, of course, the geography in question is a piece of lake shoreline in East Grand Rapids, MI.

So it’s a breezy day and there I am, sitting on a park bench by Reeds Lake, reading a book for my internship, half listening to the Mid-life Crisis concert going on behind me. Being the deep thinker that I am, I take a moment to reflect on the paragraph I just read and turn my gaze to the water. The fishermen are casting their lines. The sailing students of the Grand Rapids Yacht Club are trying to keep boats from tipping over in the wind. The geese are flying over the, wait, when did Reed’s Lake get an island?

I must have a terrible memory, because there is apparently an island, right in the middle of the lake. It’s small, not much more than some of Reed’s reeds, but definitely there. Strange that I have never seen it before, seeing as Reed’s Lake is decidedly one of my favorite places in the GR area.

Upon further scrutiny, I notice something strange. As the waves continue to lap against the island, it seems to be moving steadily across the water. Weird. Must be some sort of optical allusions caused by the horizontal movement of the waves against the reverse motion of the clouds… Whoa, this is making me dizzy… Nope, it’s not that; the island is definitely passing lake homes on the horizon…

East Grand Rapids is falling apart.