
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994                   TAG: 9404140017
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MOUNTAIN VIEW

CALL IT wonder, awe, even ecstasy. The drive from Ferrum to Roanoke by way of the Callaway and Boones Mill back roads is a constant reminder of the glory and the goodness of this place. The span of mountains to the north stand guard over the rolling landscape of pastures, orchards and homes nestled in their apron's fertility. Those mountains give a clear reading of the day ... glowing with sunlight as the green of spring climbs up the slopes, shrouded in angry summer clouds, somber and reflective with the internalizing of winter. The landscape is a powerful reminder of the natural world that nurtures, inspires and gives context our lives.

I am continually perplexed by a culture and economically driven society that wants to derive its meaning and motivation from ``progress'' in the form of bigger and better roadways for bigger and better businesses for bigger and better jobs for bigger and better ... despair, drugs, violence, poverty of spirit? Our spiral of material madness seems to have so little grounding in what are often referred to as quality of life, moral values, ethical traditions or truly human potential. I am saddened that in the public arena, so little attention is given to the deep connections between our political and economic choices which grossly alter the broader landscape and our daily personal choices which demean and destroy individual lives, families and communities. I wonder where people want to go and why are they in such a hurry? The constant scurrying for economic growth and development as expediently as possible - personally, institutionally, systemically - seems to reflect a fear of looking directly at who we really are and what we are about. It also denies and disregards the capacity we have for joy and celebration in simply being alive in this most amazing universe. We don't have time, there's too much to do, we don't have enough.

My recent drives to Roanoke on the backroads of Callaway and Boones Mill have brought these dilemmas more to mind as I envision the aftermath of an I-73 forged through this very place. My heart aches that we are so out of touch with the real beauty and wonder of life - pain and struggle included - that we allow money and commerce and economic ``progress'' to so impede our progress as truly human beings graced by a naturally bountiful world.

|JERRYANNE BIER |FERRUM

by CNB