February 2002
The Sonoita Valley is
a spectacular and inspiring place to live.

Having moved to such a place, there is
a powerful urge to pull up the drawbridge and stock
the moat with alligators.

But there is no justice
in that, no humanity, no equity, not even much of
a righteous cause. Except this:
… at some point
the Sonoita Valley could be loved to death,
and then
it will be gone for everyone.

No matter how virtuous
we all might become as individuals,
a sufficient number of us
doing perfectly ordinary and moral things
will become a force of destruction.

It probably would
be all right to use up a place like the Sonoita Valley,
as long as there was always another one
just down the road.

For much of human history that has been the case,
… or so it seemed.
But … no … longer.

page 109, The View from Bald Hill,
Carl E. Bock and Jane H. Bock.
2000. University of California Press