Paving Paradise

Tomorrow, I promise I'll return to normal Tinker Art fare. Normally, I consider this blog to be politically neutral territory. My focus here is on pursuing a creative life through art, writing, and yes, even gardening.  I usually try to avoid political topics here. But there comes a time when if you don't stand for something, then you stand for nothing.

Maybe it's because they've been trying to grow their garden for about the same amount of time that I've been trying to grow my own, that touches my heart so; I understand what it is to plant a grape vine, an  orange tree for a wedding or an apple tree for the birth of a child. A forget-me-not for someone who's gone on. I know what it is to toil, sweat, nurture and love what you grow; to savor and share the fruits of your labor.

Or maybe it's because for years, I've seen the farms, the groves, the ranches, that once populated my valley (how green it once was!) - give way to strip malls and parking lots. Just as the Joni Mitchell song foretold:

Don't it always seem to go -

That you don't know what
you got till it's gone -

They paved paradise,
and put up a parking lot...

In fact, right now I'm thinking it's really very difficult to completely separate art from controversial topics: from politics, religion, good old freedom of speech in expressing your feelings.

I painted this a few years ago, when I was saddened by what was happening to our little corner of the world. How rich, fertile land, greenbelts were falling in the path of bulldozing developers. Ironically enough, the title is "Promised Land."

To the list of under-valued, underpaid, unappreciated people of our communities - the firefighters, the policemen, the nurses/healthcare providers, teachers, water technicians (!yeah - how often do we think to be grateful for our water supply?) - I'd like to add those who should be at the forefront - those who grow our food.  Where would any of us be without them?

How poignant is it that in America, the people in this  particular neighborhood can't even buy fresh food grown on farms, they can't obtain fresh fruits or vegetables at a local store. So they show the initiative, invest the hardwork to  grow their own - but then, even this avenue is taken from them. These are real people: Moms and dads, babies, children, grandmas and grandpas. They aren't some abstract them. This is what we humans do to make bad stuff seem less real.  Oh, those people. Them. As in not me, not us. That wouldn't happen here; to US. But it could - it's called eminent domain.

So tonight, I'm just sad. For them. For us.  If you have a local farmer's market, please support it, your local farmers, while you still can. I realize these plots in this particular community garden were for their own use. But it's a distressing sign of the times: that farms, farmers, this land itself - none are being honored the way they once were, when we started this whole great nation. It's time we got back to our roots, before we don't have any left, anymore.  They'll be buried under a parking lot.

As long as I'm returning to my long-dormant roots, I'll leave you with this song, from Woody Guthrie:

This land is your land,

This land is my land,

From California to the New York Island

From the redwood forest to the Gulf stream waters,

This land was made for you and me!

Because we live in a free country (and I love it and have no plans of leaving it, thank you), we may have the right to do some things  - but I don't think Woody was talking about putting up warehouses or parking lots. (yes, those things are a necessary part of our modern day life, but how many of them do we really need? and do they have to go where other people have worked really hard to grow things that take years to grow?  I'm just sayin', that's all).

Tonight I'm just trying in my own way to be grateful for what I have, and say a little prayer for those that no longer have what they did.

Tomorrow we'll return to our regularly scheduled program of tinkering around.

(Edit: My apologies to Marilyn and those of you who read this early, I posted this very late and inadvertently used the same link twice, instead of linking to Marilyn's poignantly prophetic post on this topic as I intended. So if you've come back for another look, please click on the first link again, which points you to her post on this. Thanks! And Marilyn, thank you for having the courage to always stand up and speak up! I can't always, especially on national topics, for reasons I can't go into here. But I'm glad you can and do.) 

Comments

[ally bean]

Well put. It's a changing world-- and not in a way that pleases me.

I've always thought that "This Land Is Your Land" would make a better national anthem than the one we have now. I prefer the idea of group ownership and responsibility to geography than the idea of war and fighting as our country's theme.

Sigh.

[Paris Parfait]

Well stated! I agree with you. Thanks for this important message.

[judie]

Very nice artwork Tinker. Is it pastel? I understand your thoughts. It happens here in Florida too only in a slightly different way. All the "regular" people's homes at the beach have given way to high rise condos and mansions. (I had to leave the beach 3 years ago becuz of!) Now, thousands of elderly have been displaced from their retirement dreams of a mobile home on the water even off the beach. Developers have/are buying up all the prime waterfront property (we have a LOT of waterfront here) and building high-rises. The elderly who planned their entire life for their "retirement" in Florida on a fixed income are displaced. They put their entire life savings on these mobile homes only to lose them now because the land is sold for millions. For their mobile homes (nice ones) they only get $3,000 for a single-wide and $6,000 for a double wide as "compensation" for having to move. Imagine getting $3,000 in return for $150,000 paid out just a few years ago. Where do they go? What do they do with the short remainder of their lives? They certainly can't start over. And the pockets of the developers just get more and more padded. And eminent domain?? Don't even go there. I will become outraged. I consider that the state can decide some day to build a new highway over my property, then I will be the same as those displaced mobile home owners, and I am well aware that "you can't fight city hall"... Well....you know...

[Caroline]

I heard something here that outraged me recently... it was British winegrowers looking forward to global warming... how selfish is that... and how shortsighted as here we may get very cold if the gulf stream turns off... and I get outraged at the idea that gobal warming will be helped by building nucelar power stations... when the waste will then be a problem for so many thousands of generations to come....

Freedom for the individual is beginning to look like a high price for the planet...

And I LOVE being free too.

(And look what happens when you go political - everyone else does too!)

[susanlavonne]

Wonderfully written!! It is such a travesty to watch commercial greed consume more and more land.
I am quite new to your site and first assumed that the painting was a famous work borrowed from a museum site...I swear! Wow are you talented! I going to look at more of your site/work right now.

[Imelda]

Having just returned from driving a bit in the States, one of the things I noticed was signs reading "Farmers feed America", and I thought how very well they do that too. Along with admiring mountains, lakes and trees, I just loved seeing the evidence of food being cultivated, and seeing people close to the land. Please don't let them pave your paradise. It's so beautiful!

[Daisy Lupin]

Thanks for popping over to my blog and for the lovely comments about the photos. Notice we have at least two favourite authors in common, Alice Hoffman and Barbara Kingsolver, just finished reading 'The Prodigal Summer', wonderful book. Love the thoughts and feelings in the article above, roots do matter, we must remember where we came from and how it was. Keep on Trucking Love Daisy Lupin

[tinker]

Ally - thanks & I agree - this would make a better anthem (it would be a lot easier to sing, too)
Tara - Thank you! And thank you for posting an important message of your own, on a topic directly relating to
Caroline's comment. Caroline - you're so right, I've opened Pandora's Box, haven't I? This is just one of the many reasons why,I think I prefer to play the part of Switzerland here on the web, or I'd never get back to doing art...
JudieMacaw - Thank you! Actually this is watercolor with a little gouache & touch of acrylic if I recall correctly (trying to darken the shadows is what I'm remembering). Pastels are my first love, but I've had to almost give them up due to sinus problems (and I just can't draw with something like a mask over my face, I've tried - it throws me off completely!)
Susan, thank you so much (I'm blushing right now!)
Imelda, I'm so glad you were able to see the 'best bits' of our state here - where farming is still a legitimate way of life. We still have pockets of agriculture down in the Southern end here, but we've lost nearly half of it in the last decade. I'm praying what's left doesn't follow.
Daisy - Yes, Alice Hoffman and Barbara Kingsolver are 2 of my favorite authors, I've loved everything I've read so far, by both of them. Thanks for stopping by - come back anytime, the door's always open! And I'm usually a lot more chipper than I am tonight :-)