As it was given to us

Doris Betts, who taught creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill for many years and who has written a number of novels herself, has a character in a story observer that people sure have changed. The character says that people used to go on trips to see how things are in other places. People used to go and see the wonders of creation. But people now have changed. They go to see what somebody has made. They go to see and visit what somebody sat in an office and made up. They designed it. They built it and now they charge you money to see it. People used to go see the Grand Canyon now they go to Las Vegas. They used to go to Florida for the beaches. Now they go to Disney Land (or World, I can never remember which is in Florida and which is in California). They used to go to see what we had been given. Now they go to see what we have made and have to pay.

I do not know whether or not that is true. I do not know whether you would call the number one tourist attraction in North Carolina, The Blue Ridge Parkway, something that was built or something that enables people to see what we have been given. I do know that when I mentioned that I was going to Tanzania to see the Serengeti Plains, the Ngorongoro Crater, and the Olduvai Gorge with all the wild animals, a man said you can go to a place in Florida to see all those animals and it is safer. Well, I want to see them as nearly as natural as I can, the way they have been given to us in the wild.

According to a number of religious traditions humanity was given responsibility for caring for creation. Looking at things in the Gulf right now it does not appear that we have done a very good job of that care or protection. On the one hand it means that we better go see nature as it was created quickly because it will not last very long, and we may need to study them to see if we can find a way to be better stewards of the gifts we have been given.

I am excited about the trip. It is a big world and it is a gift to be enjoyed.