(Co)existence

Conservation and conflicting conscience.

Earlier this week, I returned to Florida to meet with a client I traveled to see last year - a real estate developer of beautiful condominiums, in this case, situated by a conservation area.

The contrast of luxury, state of the art human residences set amid what would otherwise be the wild, natural home of birds and other untamed creatures is not lost on me at all. 

That this swampy land and water is so accessible adds invaluably to the appeal of the development - for me, anyway.

The buildings are done; if not by this client, other construction would rise on this site. We humans will want to live in pretty little palaces close to nature (or the "lite" version of nature that most of us crave). I feel some conflict. But I would not let the conservation area be lost for all the world; I enjoy it so. And I suppose that's always been the point of conservation - to highlight the treasures so we treasure them more, in hopes we leave the rest free.

Would it be compatible with human nature to just let it all be if we didn't already know firsthand the consequences of our darker inclinations toward greed and control and possession and subjugation? I don't know. Because the manifestation and consequences of all of those traits preceded all of us here today; I don't know that we could ever know if we could just BE and let be with what is around us. To some degree, our survival and progress depended on our not letting anything be, right?

But now that we know better, hopefully we will endeavor to do better.