On writing, sharing and the natural gas boom

It is a sun-filled, windy Saturday in Yellow Spring, Ohio. I thought today I would check out a blog that my friend Peter started up some time ago. Entries were few and far between, but rich and thoughtful. Small islands of reflection in the restless open waters and cold wind of living today. Here, in the written word, we come inside, knock snow and mud off our boots to savor warmth together and rejuvenate each other. Writing is an act of sharing, a kind of careful giving to the present and future. Literature.

Through this "citizen literature", we are attempting to understand each other and the difficult world into which we were born.

Peter's brother wrote this November 3...

my brother, Jake, on fracking

Its a dream of mine, as futile as it may be, that we, as members of a community, a nation and a planet could approach an issue as important as hydraulic fracturing with even a hint of rational thought. Unfortunately for our area, the fortunes our mailboxes seem to be turning up daily easily rival any notions of stewardship.  What little hope that remains vanishes when pooling statutes are considered. The reality is, our lands will be used. Just as fortunes were made with coal decades ago, fortunes will be made again with no less devastation. The rape of this resource is easy as we are continually faced with the financial hardships of our area. It is all too easy to accept this winning ticket. Sadly, the boom will come and go. Towns will fill and empty just as quickly. And ultimately, the boom in jobs will not be felt. Ask any local hospitality worker, the accents fueling our towns are not our own. Nor will be the jobs. The only thing we stand to gain is environmental ruin. Oh and lots of money. I cannot fault anyone’s decisions. Turning down a jackpot is not an easy or, dare I say, prudent thing to do. These mistakes were made long ago. Luckily, there are those of us who dream about tomorrow.


Well put, my friend. It is a dangerous wire we walk. Our civilization is built upon finite resources, yet many do not understand the ways in which they are being depleted. Even then, many people today, young and old,  have gone to the public spaces to question the myths of the growth economy, quantity (GDP) over quality of life (parks, clean water, human-scale communities). The Occupy Movement spread quickly across the world. European leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland begin to rethink the future of capitalism. The diy and new localism movements gain more and more frequent coverage in popular media. The growing divide between the old and new worldviews, combine with dire economic conditions, suggest that a period of deep civic unrest and upheaval is fast approaching. Sadly, wars are often won by those who have the greatest resources, not the greatest values. Big industries and their lobbyists, grown corpulent with earnings from the depletion of the common’s resources, turn that wealth against us. And lo, history repeats itself. Only this time the monarchs compete for loyalty with the carrot of jobs and where a different robe. But we are getting smarter, slowly, but we must make better investments in education, not only for our children but for those now in their 20s and 30s. As a society, we must commitment to a life of learning. Not an easy task.