I was sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon listening to a speaker who was telling us that in 35 years the prediction is that the Colorado River below will be dry from over use by continued development in the Southwest. It already is pretty much dry by the time it reaches the ocean. I found this thought unsettling (at minimum) as I’m sure most of those did who were seated around me in the moment. It set me to wondering a bit and it made me think about why I write fiction. I think it is because when I am writing fiction, I am in complete control of the world I create. As difficult as it often gets in creating that story, I am still in complete control to make it bend to my will. That is pure satisfaction when I succeed. I wish it were as easy in the real world where competing viewpoints and desires whirl in the maelstrom of politics and business, but it seems that no one is really in control when it comes to the difficult questions facing an ever increasing materialistic population on this planet. Working so many years in the conservation industry left me with a minimalist tendency and a preservation ethic, though one tainted with a healthy dose of populist realism. It wasn’t easy to maintain a preservationist code even in the park service, and it’s no different in our expanding development in the United States.
The future is always the past in the making.
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Greg
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