Gene Moore Leads Yale Travel Tour of Holland & Belgium Next May

A Letter From Gene Moore

November 2019

Dear Classmates,

“As everyone knows, water and meditation are wedded forever,” according to Melville’s Ishmael in the opening chapter of Moby-Dick.

As someone who has lived in Amsterdam for thirty-five years, and now sits contemplating the November skies reflected in the wrinkled avocado-colored waters of a canal, I can assure you that a week on the waters of the Low Countries provides a unique opportunity to explore the meditative potential of water. You needn’t go whaling to discover and satisfy the need that makes Ishmael so restless; you can float along the winding waterways between Amsterdam and Bruges on a luxurious barge, with picturesque side-trips by bicycle or on foot to quiet places where motor vehicles have little or no access.

Holland is literally built on water. One-fifth of the surface of the Netherlands is water, another third lies below sea level, and only five percent of the dry land is higher than one meter above the sea. Schiphol Airport occupies an immense reclaimed lake-bed, on runways four meters below sea level. From the tour barge you can gaze down upon cows grazing in green fields several meters below your own water level, and admire the windmills and houseboats and tulip fields and abundant greenery and bird-life along the shores.

The land of Holland is also uniquely built from the water, with systems of dikes and polders developed since the Middle Ages, by means of which flooded and low-lying areas have been reclaimed from the sea and turned into productive farmlands. Despite its size, the Netherlands is now the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products (after the U.S.), exporting nearly $92 billion in agricultural products in 2017, including more than half of the world’s trade in flowers and plants. Rotterdam is Europe’s largest harbor. The Dutch are justly proud of the maintenance of their infrastructure and their lifestyle, and it is entirely fitting that their national motto should be Je maintiendrai – “I shall maintain.” The Netherlands also have one of the highest population densities in the world, at 412 people per square kilometer, or 507 if one doesn’t include the water (as against only 33 for the U.S.). Compared with countries of equal or larger populations, the density is higher only in Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan. And yet, as we glide through green farmlands and pasture-lands between rows of neatly planted willows and poplars, you would never have the impression that this was a crowded country.

Holland is currently the fifth happiest country in the world according to the “Happiness League Tables” of the World Happiness Report compiled by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, based on factors such as GDP per capita, social support, “trust,” “healthy life expectancy,” and “freedom to make life choices.” By these measures, the U.S. currently ranks 19th (and Belgium 18th) out of 156 countries. I was very happy to discover this, especially until a Dutch friend informed me that the model for measuring happiness was developed by a Dutch professor in Rotterdam. After completing a B.A. in English at Yale, I studied comparative literature (French and German) in graduate school and taught English and American literature here at the Universiteit van Amsterdam from 1985 to 2013, with literary modernism as a specialty and a particular focus on the works of Joseph Conrad. I would be delighted to meet old classmates here for a green and restful tour, and to share with you my experience of this fascinating and beautiful country. To learn more, visit the Yale Educational Travel page for the tour or call 203-432-1952 or email edtravel@yale.edu.

With best wishes,

Gene Moore