The project manager for the “Miranda Canyon Preserve” (which doesn’t “preserve” a damn thing) just telephoned me to complain about inaccuracies and misconceptions in my earlier post. I’m afraid I immediately became extremely emotional and hung up on him. [Sigh...]
That’s all right, though.
Number one, I’m delighted that he found my blog by googling. (Apparently my SEO work is paying off: search for “Miranda Canyon Preserve” and see what comes up, HAH!) Number two, I’m completely unsuited for any kind of “discussion” on an issue that’s as obvious to me as torture, murder, and God knows what else. I just can’t compromise on this, and neither should you — but please don’t ask me to join your committee or talk to the press, I’m too much of a loose cannon on the subject, and I have a life to live. Number three, I don’t care if my writing about the canyon is less than 100% accurate — I’m an artist, a writer, an earth-lover, and I’d be the first to admit that I’m propagandizing for the planet. I’ve also been through this a dozen or more times in my life: the advocates for “development” always lie, they can’t help it. They bring out charts and experts to explain hydrology, they talk about benefits to the community, they weave and bob and smile, and all of it is nonsense because it’s based on a fundamental blindness to the facts of our existence on the planet and the responsibility we all inherit.
YOU JUST CAN’T KEEP DOING THIS. IT’S OVER. FIND ANOTHER WAY TO MAKE A LIVING. The remaining unspoiled tracts of Nature are nothing less than sacred. SACRED, motherf*ckers!!!
Don’t listen to these people. Don’t get into a conversation with them. Don’t give them any opening at all. They have a problem, all right, but it isn’t me. Find a way to hang up more gracefully than I did, however. (I’m so bad.)
[Note to whoever it was who called me: no personal insult intended, and if you want to correct my facts, that's what the comments are for!]
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Let’s just hope the economy has pushed this development off for a long time. After all, the rich people are not even buying the existing mcmansions in town!
Indeed. But they want the precedent, the legal rights, so they can monetize the holding eventually in some way.
BTW, the project manager emailed me with his corrections. I didn’t read them but suggested that he come here and comment. I hope he does, and then the world can judge for itself. But you know, every time this kind of thing comes up, it always starts from the completely false premise that they have some kind of “right” to do this in the first place. That’s just not so, not in my book. They’re on the wrong side of evolution, and most of us know that in our hearts.
I would hate to be running that project. Who could stand to be so close to so much evil for so long?
Unfortunately, so many are after the cash only – everything else be damned all to hell. Karma is a bitch though, and people like that will get theirs, no doubt about it. If he is afraid of leaving a comment with his name here, maybe you should post his comments for him?
No, no! He’s probably a decent enough fellow and can speak for himself. But MAN, I would hate to be in his shoes.
I just can’t imagine why I should let myself be drawn into “arguing” about this, and I won’t. These guys don’t realize how much the rest of us have changed over the last 20 years…
BTW, I quoted someone (the Taos News?) in my citing 500 lots in that development. The project manager says it’s “only” 150, as if that makes a difference. They have to know that they won’t sell those lots in this economy and that the boom times will never come back the way they were, so something else is obviously afoot. Make it sound as benign as possible, get the permits, and then? I don’t know, but none of it is good.
Oh good, “only” 150 new McMansions to A. take away more open land, B. raise house prices even more so regular folk cannot afford a shack, and C. to use up whatever water is left up there with their perfect lawns.
These guys have no clue about this area, none at all.
They have no clue about what it means to be truly human. No clue about the big picture, no reverence or respect.
Hmmmmm, I feel the need to interject here. How is their sense of entitlement greater than your sense of entitlement to have a house provided for you that meets your standards, in your price range? Entitlement however piously disguised, is still entitlement – and this perverse notion of “regular folks”…is bothersome. Perhaps you have seen a documentary titled “The american right feeling wronged” in which lots of “folks” who scared the crap out of me went on for 2 hours about how THEY are the regular folk, the backbone of this country…
We are all regular folk (or irregular whatever the case may be) the point being that there is no such thing.
Education and exchange of ideas is a wonderful thing in every sense of the word. Karma IS a powerful energy force and the best way to get a sense of that is to look at your life, look around you and see what your karma says about you. Then, possibly, you have a few ions left over to wonder about the karma of the other guy. Possibly.
I am in no way condoning land development, simply questioning the apportion of energy here and what appears to be a misplaced indignation about “poor” people being “real” and “rich” people being “false”.
I’ve been both….I feel very real.
There are unconscious beings in all of us, how best to effect change?
“How is their sense of entitlement greater than your sense of entitlement to have a house provided for you that meets your standards, in your price range?”
John wants a house for him and his wife that suits them, and nothing more. These developers want to take hundreds of acres of open space, that should belong to everyone, and make it private for just a few while making millions of $ in the process. That’s a big difference in “entitlement”.
Rebecca:
It must be my imperfect writing that leads you to infer this. I certainly don’t mean the above! Nothing wrong with being rich, and I hope to be myself sometime. Why not?
When I talk about people being truly human or not, I mean their sensitivity to things we all have in common. Not responding to the spiritual energy of Nature is symptomatic of a disease or a mutation. Something isn’t “working” in their souls, or maybe they’re even an evolutionary dead end. Has nothing to do with rich or poor, real or not real. This is more on the level of, do you let your grandmother sit out in the middle of the road and eat rocks? I submit that one who would do that has grown up without a certain switch being thrown or a certain connection being made — someone who has no clue about what it means to be truly human, in other words. I understand this state of affairs because of how I was raised: until very recently, I had no idea what it was like to be loved without reservation. I was certainly human, but not wholly so. Just ask my wife and friends.
And I certainly don’t feel “entitled” to a decent home! The fact that our living circumstances are less than ideal at the moment is directly related to my own attitude and expectations. For various reasons [see above], I’ve been playing the victim role, but I have no doubt that things will smooth out for us as I feel better and better about myself.
(It’s also true that Taos landlords and realtors are still swimming in the koo-aid, but given time, they’ll come around…)
Short of resorting to smiley faces, tone is difficult to achieve in email.
Methinks the issue is not in the least your nonexistent ineptitude as a writer….I am merely observing, not criticizing (at least I think so) I tried to edit for a clearer tone but was timed out. In previous posts you have lent a sense of entitlement to your quest for a new house, I think that’s normal when things don’t appear when we expect them but can also get in the way. I still contend that just because the goal is better or worse doesn’t detract from a thread of stuff I have picked up on here. I think it is separate from your comments about being human.
That is a different matter altogether. Lack of humanity can lead me to weep on a daily basis and I agree with your assessment. I read your blog with enthusiasm, warmth and respect. The Helen Chronicles left me weak with empathy ( I sobbed through most of it) for weeks with questions about why one persons life is so different from another’s.
I applaud your journey and the courage it takes to chronicle it for all of us allowing our own catharsis on the sidelines-
However -my questions and observations still exist. Your sometimes attitude of “hey I’m broke why can’t life be more fair to me” can occasionally prompt more negative energy that I think you intend.
I can say that I love your column unconditionally….
here’s to not drinking the kool-aid but sometimes eating rocks
I agree completely! You are absolutely right, and that’s exactly the victim role I’m hopefully playing less and less these days. If you read the Helen Chronicles, you understand the training I had. Something very different is emerging now, and it’s about damn time.
SACRED, motherf*ckers!!!
Indeed. It would be a shame if someone pulled up the survey stakes.
I’ll leave that to the ghost of Ed Abbey…