by Linda Burleson

Created on: March 27, 2009

Imagine a rustic road, winding amidst tall trees and foliage, birds of all sorts flying from tree to tree. Picture an early morning drive through peaceful surroundings that exemplify the seasons with trees changing colors in the fall, wildflowers blooming in the spring, occasionally white with snow in the winter, a drive of about thirty minutes that has prepared you to enter your busy workplace. These scenes are becoming fewer and farther between.

Fuel is important. We need it to operate our tools, our appliances, our automobiles, our toys, our air conditioning. our lights. One of those fuels is natural gas, delivered through huge pipelines, dug with heavy equipment through areas described above, through farmland and ranchland. Flora is stripped so that roads can be widened. The employees of the company laying the pipeline head to work early in the morning at a higher speed than necessary and with bright headlights on because the sun has not yet come up. Everything has changed in the name of progress.

Progress means concrete, tall buildings, people spending all their time indoors, rarely breathing fresh air. Progress means bigger, and faster automobiles, airplanes, boats and all other automatons. Progress means the need to fuel all these things. Progress means luxury, leisure and employment. Progress sometimes means greed and avarice.

When we weigh the price of progress, whether or not it is too high often depends upon one's station in life. Whether or not it is all worth it may depend on how many gadgets one can afford. It can come down to perspective, yet at some point we must look outward to weigh when and where to draw the line. We must consider whether natural resources can be used up.

Many conservationists believe that the creator put everything on this earth that we need to be healthy and happy, but mankind, in his craving for ease and facility has resorted to synthetic fabrics, pharmaceuticals, food preservatives, and even the very air in which we live. Are cancers and other modern diseases part of the price of progress? Perhaps the time has come for us to evaluate just how much we are willing to surrender in health, peace, solitude, and other qualities of life in order to have convenience and comfort.

Recently u-tube showed four persons placing cell phones on a table at north, south, east and west positions with popcorn kernels in the center. They called the cell phones and,as they all rang, the kernels began popping. This was a demonstration of the microwaves put out by cell phones. Do any of us consider this as we use our cell phones throughout the day.

What is the price of progress? It is quite possible that we in the USA, a most progressive country, will find out in ways we never dreamed. A wake-up call may be necessary for us to decide that nature might sometimes be better.

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