Yesterday, I lost a friend forever... a very good Friend. You did, too.
Remember the recent post about the scads of blackbirds?
Remember the recent post about the scads of blackbirds?
Remember the pictures of the Red-Tail Hawks?
Remember the cool fungus shots from a winter's day?
...there is so much more...rather, was......no more, Friends. No more.
In the snap of a finger, without warning or any notification, serious machinery began a mass ripping out the woods from which the above images were captured just within the past few weeks. My heart hit rock bottom.
Birds like a Brown Thrasher and a vireo and a chickadee were scampering amongst the downed and shredded trees in confusion. The herd of deer I saw two weeks ago won't be back. The hawks won't come around, either you can count on that. Who knows (or cares) what will be built...hmm, let me guess......an office park, which is about the last thing needed in this area... or a small subdivision so we can add all the more traffic to a 2-lane road that can't handle the traffic already on it... don't know if it is zoned for apartments, but wouldn't that be a swell idea to add fuel to the fire of all of this uncontrolled growth...
...when you boil out the hype of an increased tax base and business opportunity, it all comes down to the Almighty Dollar. Turning a buck. Oh, I'm sorry, we're supposed to call it "progress". Right. This is not to say that any and all development is bad, or not in our highest and best interest...but it is almost always done in a disrespectful manner to Nature, and that WILL come back and haunt us down the road. Bank on it.
The Native Americans, whenever they took a tree or cleared a small area of forest, they offered tobacco as their blessing to Spirit for needing to remove this or these trees...Yeah, I cried. The Native Americans, whom we royally screwed over, even to this day, had a profound outlook on Nature that we would do well to think and meditate upon...when they took a tree...they understood that we are not 'masters of' but an 'intrisic part of' All That Is...a steward, not a King...what we do to the Trees we do to ourselves...what we do to the Waters we do to ourselves...what we do to the Animals we do to ourselves...they understood this respectful balance...
...but I guaran-damn-T-you that the overwhelming majority of developers don't honor in this way. They move in. They whack. They destroy. They receive and deposit their checks. They move on to destroy another landscape in the name of progress and improvement. Please, if you are a developer and you offer prayerful thought and 'honoring' before you move in and rip out a natural landscape, PLEASE post a comment so we can thank you. Otherwise, I rest my case...
I offered my tobacco, anyway. I don't know about you, but I feel helpless. And yet...I feel led to fight back....though words can be some of the least efficient conveyors of Energy, I use my written and spoken words to plant seeds that some may hear, and offer my flute music to help heal. I return to something I said here looong ago...if my words on this blog reach only one person, then I feel my work has been done. I don't know who reads this. Maybe a lot. Maybe few. I do know that I have an eclectic group around the US that semi-regularly reads, and I know I can't be the only one fed up with the mass land-grabbing mentality.
All I know is that the old 'status quo' of how things operate in our society needs to be closely examined and in some cases overhauled in a major way. We assume that because we've always done something a particular way that it is the only way. Or the best way. Or the right way. Our economic models have always overvalued the monetary bottom line and grossly undervalued social and environmental 'good'.
I long for the day when "progress" can be defined as NOT developing something, but leaving the land in place as a much-needed sanctuary. I long for the day when someone will be happy with driving even a Lexus instead of a Rolls Royce, if it means they have forsaken an obscene profit to preserve a part of this fragile world we are quickly destroying.
And most people think the only war we're fighting is in Iraq.
And most people think the only war we're fighting is in Iraq.
4 comments:
The "Idiot Outside" picture from yesterday would've been a good one for this post.
Bobbye
You got that right. I always hear people say "I have the right to do whatever I want to do, legally"...won't it be a wonderful thing when people start replacing the word "right" with "responsibility" and then see what types of decisions they make...
Hey Bob. I know the exact feelings you are having right now. Farm land in front of my parents house has been sold, and is slated for development. Everything from a grocery store to an apartment complex has been rumored for the land. I called the town zoning office. I had questions. Mainly, why? Asked why the land couldn't be left alone. The answer? "You need development in that area". I laughed at him. Told him the reason people move outside the city limits is to ESCAPE. You KNOW when you live 6 miles from the nearest store. If you move out there, that is what you want.
Needless to say, the city official and I did not have a really pleasant conversation. He couldn't understand why someone would want a plot of land to be left alone. Again, it was all in the name of progress.
So some are fighting the zoning, but its in the beginning stages. Sadly, I imagine the almighty dollar will win regardless.
Will
Thanks, Will...and that is exactly the problem, this ingrained belief structure society has that places 'value' on land only if it is developed, which makes it all about the money. It doesn't have to be that way, of course, but it will require bold leaders and land owners to change that course.
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