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Show 4 - CHANGING TIMES - FEBRUARY 1994 More CHANGING each other in a less polarized setting. from Page 1 The challenge will be to maintain what is special about Castle Valley when many other things are changing so quickly. —Jack Campbell * more. Here in Castle Valley more houses are being built than ever before—eleven new houses are in the works for this summer, and it’s still winter. Grand County has gained increasing national and international notoriety as a place to visit and/or buy property. When things change this rapidly, not only do people have valid worries about what the future holds, but they also have to change pieces of the way they live now. Not just paranoia, these fears are grounded firmly on the economic situation in Grand County; it is reasonable to fear that taxes may get too high to pay. To many newcomers a five-acre lot sounds like a ZOO-acre farm, but when residents have been accustomed to empty lots around their houses a new building going up just over the property line may seem too close for comfort. Things they used to do may now impact their new neighbors, and their sense of freedom and solitude may seem threatened. Each change requires its own period of adjustment. Some part of the antagonisms surfacing in this community these past two years can be attributed to the stress and tension coming from too rapid change. People who felt they had moved way out in the country are having to adjust to the reality that they are now part of a subdivision rapidly filling with new people, some with ideas and values which seem very different from the original pioneers’. We need to learn to live together in these rapidly changing times. Possibly the beginning of the new CV master planning process will be a good chance for community members to get to know Coming Home Billie my four-legged friend and I were making good time, having left the deep freeze arctic air clinging to the mid-westem state of Illinois, home for the majority of my extended family. We were already feeling the increase in temperature as we made our way westward on our trek across Interstate 70. Denver was creeping up to 40°, the sun was shining, and our open window allowed warm air into our secure cabin. By the time we reached the divide the western sky set itself up for a sunset I will never forget, one that lasted well into the last phase of our journey. Taking it slowly across the Cisco desert, due to the loaded Volvo, I inhaled the smell of the open space before us. Billie and I were getting anxious to pull up the drive at last, way to full hanging in the western sky, winter’s ceiling dotting and flashing overhead. The car rolled to a stop. I shut the engine and said a prayer. We had arrived back home in good hands with no troubles. The silence resumed. Billie and I smiled from head to toe. Settling in a bit before walking down to the end of the drive, I watch the moon set over the rim and listen to the silence of a winter night in Castle Valley. Castle Creek moves along swiftly, the air is warm, no wind, very little snow. I’m pleased to be home. ——-Jennifer Redding RefrigeratorLea Bits = For years, my refrigerator was covered with small scraps of paper: quotes, poems, jokes, anything to bring a smile or another outlook. Often, to clear my head, I would just stand in when out on the left an intense green front of the refrigerator for a while. When we moved, I put all those papers in a box, where they have stayed. neon streak cut the blackness in half, ending with a fiery explosion sending to you, one refrigerator bit at a time, in white sparks before the horizon. I was a monthly column. Often I don’t have a stunned. The episode had caught me so question in my consciousness—just what the heck was that? When the lot to say, but some of these scraps do. I’ve been wondering what to start with, a cartoon maybe, something light or frivolous to get you to chuckle and spectacle faded as quickly as it hap— look forward to the next installment. pened I realized it had been a meteor falling close to the earth. I took it as a welcoming. I smiled and laughed, overjoyed that I was returning to my real life, where natural occurrences are part of our lives—the smells of the Colorado inside my nostrils, the fresh air opening my lungs with a big gulp, the moon waxing its But this one, far from my first choice, keeps snagging my eye: off-guard that I had to register a I’m going to be handing them over To be strong does not mean to be rigid. There is a way of designing houses at the beach, where big storms can flood houses: when they are flooded, the middle of the house collapses and the water, instead of taking down the whole house, just rushes through the middle and leaves the house standing. A good relationship pm zeal 54m 47 E. CENTER STREET MOAB. UT 84532 801-2592650 is something like that. It has a flexible structure and a way of absorbing shocks and stresses so it can keep its integrity and continue to function. Charlotte Joko Beck I may love that quote because we live in a house with frustrating similarities! But it also celebrates love that works, and more: it hints at a way we can keep our integrity in this commuJANIE TUFl' - SALES AGENT PO. Box 1121 - Moab UT 84532 Res. 801-259—8360 - Leave Message nity, without compromising our very foundations. See you next month. —Kaaron Jorgen |
