Wednesday, June 26, 2024

“Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden, he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. “ (Genesis 2: 8 -9, 15, New Living Translation)

               “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”  (Joni  Mitchell)

                Or in this case, the city plans to put in pickleball courts on a small piece of land called Bonnerworth Park. I think calling it a “park” is a bit of an overreach. It is basically a very large empty piece of grass and dirt with a small sandlot ball diamond and a really ugly, cement  skateboard park nearby. We are not talking trees, flowers, fountains and some serene piece of nature in which to meditate and pray.

                But not that long ago, they built a senior’s apartment complex next to the park. This is where NIMBYism comes to play. People are up in arms over the creation of the pickleball courts in Bonnerworth Park. There was a huge rally at City Hall just last night. There are “Save Bonnerworth Park” signs sprouting up on people’s lawns. There is a lot of NIMBYism in our city be it over small apartment buildings, road changes, shelters, etc. All cities have it; ours is perhaps more noticeable because we are just a small city.

The seniors don’t want the pickleball courts because of the nose and traffic. Pickleball is a relatively new sports fad, sort of like ping pong on a small tennis court. I’ve watched pickleball for about five minutes – really, really boring. Better to play than watch, I guess. It does not strike me as a very noisy, rambunctious, boisterous game but what do I know? Nobody complains about the lawn bowling club just across the street. And you know how rowdy those lawn bowlers can get.

The public outrage, limited as it may be, would make you think that they were indeed paving over  paradise.

But every since God put humankind in Eden, the relationship between nature and humankind has been complicated. We are told through Adam and Eve to be good stewards of the planet, “to tend and watch over it.” But not long after, they botch it and got tossed out of the Garden. And we have been looking for it ever since and still botching it. Think of all the good farm land that has been plowed under for highways that we don’t really need. Think of the beautiful shorelines of our Great Lakes which were taken over by factories, plants and manufacturers or the rivers into which has been dumped chemicals and the like. Think of strip mining or lumber deforestation. Think of forest fires. Urban sprawl. Over fishing.  Bonnerworth Park is a small spit in the ocean.

            Don't it always seem to go
            That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
            They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.

I don’t know about you but I am almost weary to be the bone about environmental stories – climate change, natural disasters, heat warnings like they were the apocalypse, endangered species, carbon taxes which I don’t understand at all, etc. It’s not that I don’t care but there is nothing much that I personally can do about these global issues beyond getting my recycling out. Maybe I should join the climate protesters and the like but they seem for the most part to be a little too radical in their action’s.

But it is important, I know, for each of us to do our small part to be good stewards of this planet. Perhaps, the City would do well to put in a beautiful, small landscaped park instead of the hot tarmac of a pickleball court.

But as summer begins, a most beautiful time of the year, please stop, pause, take in the beauty around you. Soak it in. Enjoy the scenery. Listen to the birds. Breathe deeply. Quiet your soul. Watch out the for the unexpected taste of paradise.  Once, when we were in Florida, I was sitting out enjoying the morning sunlight when a flamingo flew over and its plumage caught the rays of the sun and “exploded” in a ball of florescent pink. It was a sacred moment in so many ways.

        This is my Father’s world,
        And to my list’ning ears
        All nature sings, and round me rings
        The music of the spheres.
        This is my Father’s world:
        I rest me in the thought
        Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas—
        His hand the wonders wrought. (M. Babcock)

Dale