I am up
early on this Sunday morning and my emotions are playing tug of war - so I will
write, I will try to sort it all out with words. This weblog is designed to be
a place of positive postings – as I have said, it is my “Prozac” – it is a place
I come to reaffirm the good things in my life and life in general, but today, I
am being challenged with a reoccurring torment of sorts. I apologize, but I must
deviate from my purpose.
This negative spiral downward began when I opened this
laptop this morning. I have a love hate relationship with this computer. I love
the accessibility of my friends, many I would have never connected with if not
for this magical machine, and I love being able to look up information but the nemesis
is the information that is force fed to me each time I sign in – I really don’t
want to know all of that stuff – and I really don’t believe most of its
sensation but it still affects me and I carry around its negativity like a ball
and chain.
Like this morning – the headlines were “Driving America’s 85-mph
toll road before the fun gets old” – well I knew that was south Texas so I skimmed
the article and found this, “This strip, I realized, would soon lose its
innocence. The state of Texas didn't build it as a go-cart track for
gas-hogging Caddys. Austin and San Antonio are both booming, and the I-35
corridor connecting them shudders under the weight of extreme population
growth. They built the 130 to ease the traffic pressure. It probably will, a
bit, but it's also an open invitation to developers. That's some pretty country
right there along the San Marcos River. The day is coming when South Central
Texas will be one long urban megalopolis to rival southern California. At one
end sits a sign that points visitors to the new Circuit Of the Americas race
track, and at the other, the entrance to Interstate 10. TX 130, the fastest
road in the U.S.A., heralds a kind of lost innocence.” – that leveled me, the
hill country, soon to be corporate? For one, I fear that allowed rate of speed
will be pushed to the limits of 100-mph and danger will set in and secondly,
and what prompted this post, I’ve seen that strip of beautiful, authentic
country and now, I predict greedy, non-caring developers will litter it with
every chain known to us – it will look just like every town in America – chains lined up for “miles and miles of Texas”.
I traveled a lot this past summer and from the
highway, it all looks the same; I find that so disturbing. I can only imagine
the ill effects of these big corporations to the interiors of these, once unique, towns. I
know the population is exploding and we need to provide for that but why can’t
each town and city make those accommodations from within – with character and
distinction that is their own – why do we all have to look alike and why does
every piece of land have to be developed? Have we lost sight of the importance
of our natural landscape, of America the beautiful? (I suppose you expect to
hear a violin playing in the background right about now because I am getting
close to the “drama queen” border.)
Anyway, I will stop here because, as I have
said many times, I am not politically savvy and certainly know nothing about
economics, I just know that I am always upset when beautiful country with
history and distinctiveness is leveled by big chains and greed that are only
there to fill their pockets and have no concern for the destruction of natural
habitats and the heartbeat of that town.
I can't end before I ask, " Why don’t we just buy local?" I know it cost a
few dollars more to shop local, but hey, how about we “buy less” locally
instead of “paying less” for so much junk we really don’t need? I am guilty on
occasion too, guilty of popping into Wal-Mart or one of the other chains – I feel
so bad when I go into one of those places that used to be a farm or a place
where the sun set or, heck, someone’s backyard – they do not care – they have no
perimeters as to what cannot be turned into concrete, destroying the natural
flow of the land, tearing down trees, destroying the beauty and running out the
wildlife that has been there forever. Oh
and then, we get up in arms when a dislocated black bear or a coyote invades
our “territory” or a raccoon turns over our trash – how dare it come into my space? Just kill it.
I have no solution to offer and those of you
reading this may not even see it as a “problem” but this is my space to vent
and it’s obviously something that means a lot to me, so here it is. I am not
writing this to be confrontational and I don’t really care to respond to
anything, I write this to raise awareness – I just wish we could all maintain our originality and I see
supporting local businesses as the only way to that end – if not, we will all
be, if not already, cookie cutter towns with no character and our money will land in some far away place. And sadly, the art of living will be on the
clearance aisle in Wal-Mart.
b u y l e s s
p s
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