Where God Really Is

Even though I left New Mexico and returned to Pacific Grove, the experience there has continued to bubble up in my thinking as I go about my business here.  Most of all, I am acutely aware of the exquisite beauty and special qualities of nature in both places.  Of course, every place on earth originally was pristine and special in its own way.

In my mind's eye, I'm comparing what I saw there with what I see here, the similarities, the differences.  The Spanish missionaries made their presence known in both areas.  The Carmel Mission is just as old here as the old churches and sanctuaries are there for the most part.  People feel especially aware of nature in both places, as opposed to a place like San Jose or Phoenix where much of the area is cemented and shudders with the roar of air and automobile traffic 24/7.  The awareness of natural beauty and its pervasive influence on how we relate to it cannot be denied in either Santa Fe or Monterey.  Some people swear there are unseen forces at work that cause us to remember one place more vividly as compared to another.  I can't say they're wrong; that would be incredibly arrogant.

I can't really articulate the attraction to a place like Santa Fe and the region around it, but I know I am attracted.  It has had an intriguing allure for people for all of human history.  Some lucky accident of altitude, light and temperature creates a surrounding that is exceptionally interesting and pleasing.  It's no different than here.  The arresting sight of the big blue Pacific ocean frothing and splashing at the feet of 2,000 ft mountainous cliffs and undulating green slopes left nearly untouched for hundreds of miles are sights that impress people for their whole lives.

The best aspect of the central California coast and of New Mexico's high desert is that people have taken care to preserve what they have.  The Big Sur Land Trust and groups like The National Audubon Society, The Sierra Club, The US Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy have been alert for years to possibilities of preserving open space and understanding the nature of nature here.  I am hopeful that the people of Santa Fe and Taos as well as other cities and towns in New Mexico take care to safeguard the beautifully unique treasure they call home.

I have been reading with sickened dismay about the hell set loose in the Gulf of Mexico when the oil rig exploded there.  The implications for widespread disaster are certain, and I am a very optimistic person in general.  Why anyone thought drilling for oil was ever anything but a train wreck waiting to happen, I'll never know.  To stop and point fingers and politicize this situation is so petty and stupid, I cannot even say.  It has to sink in that oil and its products are toxic, that the region of the gulf pumps its waters on the gulf stream literally around the globe, that the food web in the ocean as it is lost will affect the Americas profoundly and travel to the shores of Europe and Africa and to the poles.

Economics is the least of our worries in this situation.  We need the planet - it is the air we breathe, the food we eat, the bed we sleep in.  Our children's children and their children will not know natural beauty and respite in nature unless we care for what we have.  We humans and our co-planet-passengers the animals and birds and fish need air and food, wether we then eat them or not.  This is what "dominion over" means:  Responsibility to safeguard and care for, with foresight and wisdom, our only home.