Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405020130
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT H. GILES JR.
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now I'm thinking it may be more useful to do some practical dreaming: imagining things as I want them for myself and the people around me. I long ago realized that few people can be happy or say they have a high quality of life when they are surrounded by unhappy people.
Practical dreaming replaces flights of fancy; it's reined-in imagination. It replaces planning that has 40 definitions and no agreement on the leading one. Planning is easily agreed upon, and most people do it. Some do it better than others, but whether plans or their execution is at fault when matters go awry remains debatable. Legislators, as in a lemming cycle, argue for planning for a few years, then against it.
Practical dreaming - not fear, classical planning or flights of fancy - seems needed for the New Century Region now being discussed by the New Century Council.
Especially necessary is a new way to approach tomorrow's needs of people in the region. We need a way to see the prospects for the future and a realistic way to span the gap between present conditions and what's barreling down the track. The exciting part is to hit the rapidly moving target that is the desirable future condition. As in skeet shooting, it requires leading the target.
``Let me tell you my practical dream; you tell me yours.'' This statement is the basis for work in the region as I see it. In some areas of the world, there are people who don't like such talk. There is a notion that someone may be in charge and may be telling someone what to do. Maybe there can be a conversation. Just sharing.
It's hard finding out what others think. That takes time, which seems in short supply for everyone these days. Perhaps, however, all of the things we are doing now are not as important as such discussions. Research indicates that most people read about four times faster than they hear speech, so written comments may be useful and boost the efficiency of the data-gathering process by a few points.
Our region needs to become open-minded; practical; at least as interested in our grandchildren's conditions as our own; inclusive; aware of our history; involved with laughter, fun and the satisfactions of the human condition; and excited about being a part of the rest of the commonwealth, the nation and the world.
As an example, I dream of a region where we have a special insurance rate that rewards people who have superior health. The big-H score is like the reward for not smoking or not having accidents. It's reasonable for people to want good health, but regular, specific, monetary encouragement is not a bad idea.
I imagine grocery stores promoting healthful foods, farmers involved in highly valued natural-food production. Zoning could discourage living on sites known from studies to be correlated with cancer incidence. Fire-safety inspections could reduce insurance costs, and (here is the interconnection needed throughout the region) the incidence of fires would be cut, economic loss reduced, fossil-energy loss reduced, and the social trauma throughout the area along with the unhappiness coefficient reduced. A new small industry, ``the inspection team,'' would come into being.
My illustration is brief, but note what it contains. The practical dream has at least five related parts: it can be done now (no inventions needed), it has financial dimensions, it may have costs but they are offset or equaled by benefits, and it need not produce ``blue-chip'' investment returns - just a great, sustained, healthy place for people in the next century.
Robert H. Giles Jr. is a professor in Virginia Tech's College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources.
by CNB