Click here for part I of this conversation.jeff – 1:15 pm: so, is it safe to say that for some reason, Americans think we are 'owed' something? that if we are without, it's someone else's job to provide for us? this could be the case today in respect to the american economy. people think that since money is scarce (relatively speaking) that they deserve someone else to help them out.
the following thought always makes me feel like an old man wearing suspenders and velco shoes, but here it goes anyway. i often think that americans as a whole have forgotten what working hard for something is like (myself definately included). i can think back to when i was younger and playing a team sport or even younger and constructing some sort of mess in the dirt and leaves in the back yard...it was hard work...but i always assumed that i was going to do it. i very rarely complained about it, and never asked for help back then. i saw a goal and focused on it... i dont think i am the only person who feels this way...so what happened? what changed when i (we) stopped digging in the dirt and starting click buttons for a living?
as to your question as to why do we revert...i think in some silly, psychological, infantile manner, those things are comfort. the change is only temporary, and temporary 'change' doesn't really breed change at all, it breeds a temporary diversion.
on the subject of drought as it relates to water...i drive home everyday, and i see an untouched landscape near my home. it is covered with cedar and mesquite trees, brush and rock. then i pull into the neighborhood, and what do i see? none of that. i see half dead grass and the occassional oak tree in the front yards of people. i see water run off from sprinkler systems that just recently sprouted to life and the colorful blooms of flowers better designed for the climates of new england than south texas. needless to say, i think we missed it. we move out to the middle of the sticks, only to plow down the sticks and plant the same trees as those planted years ago in inner-city neighborhoods 75 years ago. its comfort. i look out in the distance in our back yard (which we rent, not own) and i see brush-lined hilltops in the distance. i focus closer, right over our 6-foot high wood fence and what do i see, a fenced-in retention pond filled with concrete barriers and a dirt lined floor. its comfort.
kyle – 1:26 pm: the detention pond outside of your backyard is a good example of our current mindset.
somewhere along the way, folks realized that adding impervious cover to the fabric of a city worsened flooding. less water soaks into the ground, more runs through parking lots and into swollen creeks.
rather than slowing the rate at which we pave paradise to put up more parking lots, it just meant that now we would sprawl a little further out because every development needed extra acreage for their detention pond. the added sprawl then exacerbates flooding by taking the impervious world further into the territory that once served as natural flood control. in placing a band-aid on one issue, we opened the wound larger on another.
for the sake of our suburban independence and western-determinism (i will live wherever i want to – everyone else be damned…), we ended up creating more problems that now look for solutions. but at least we don’t live in the city with the poor people.
jeff – 3:33 pm: as katy said humorously (but rather perfectly) after seeing a deer get demolished by a large truck while trying to cross a highway of an until recently rural area, "we're taking over their land!" it is very much a western mindset that we take the old adage "if we put our minds to it, we can accomplish anything" and add our own twist to it, never really caring what the cost will be, only the narrow minded end result.
a few years ago i got to take a trip to las vegas. during that time, we took a day tour of the hoover dam. i must admit, that was a very impressive and daunting structure, and we enjoyed the dam tour very much. one thing that humored me though was seeing the declining water level against the rock from lake mead above the dam. a major reason for the construction of this massive slab of concrete was to create electricity for a huge chunk of california, and in the process, a lake was formed. this lake has continued to provide water to the entire las vegas valley for years. the city was virtually born thanks to a construction project. now (or at least until last year) the city is growing at record numbers, and the lake level is quickly and steadily declining. they are increasing the population of a city so much, that a million plus people may someday be without a drinking source. an oasis in the desert...or a mirage? and the list of these instances goes on, i'm sure. if memory serves me correctly, i seem to remember hearing that el paso is running out of water as well.
and hey, katy and i are poor...we hope to be living in the city by august! do you know of any gated communities in the area?
kyle – 3:46 pm: well, we are known consumers. if we live up to that moniker, then i suppose we should be depleting all of our resources. self-fulfilling prophecy.
the metaphor translates spiritually, by the way. if we are simply consumers of spirituality, we end up thirsty and wandering lost in our self-made desert.
what we need, both culturally and spiritually, is an identity shift. instead of being consumers, we need to be stewards. we need to be responsible keepers of the place we inhabit and of the legacy we claim.
jeff – 4:25 pm: yes, we are known consumers. funny, i was thinking earlier that i really want to build and maintain a garden...be a producer. i would like to bear fruit, but alas, i'm a renter! perhaps that tangible illustration is a look deeper into the spiritual fruit that is being produced.
i've always loved the parable of the sower, and i've often wondered which seed i would be. i know which one i'd like to be, but liking and actually being can be two different stories.
luke 8: 14-15 reads: "the seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop."
am i choked by life's worries and riches, or do i retain the word and bear fruit? but in order to bear fruit, one requires water, for a drought would most certainly kill off most any form of life.
perhaps a drought is never desired, but sometimes it's necessary in order to show what is necessity. the trick is cutting off that which is not required, in order to focus more attention on that which produces, that which is intrinsically good.
final thougths?
kyle – 4:35 pm: drought reveals. conflict clarifies.
jeff – 4:53 pm: conversation leads to clarity, openness and trust. performance will surely follow.
"the thing about performance is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities" -sydney smith, 18th century english essayist
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so, there you have it, one topic, one days work. if you're still reading this, first off, thanks! but also, what are your thoughts on drought, or any of the subjects randomly addressed in these two posts?
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