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Struggle
for Survival
Non
Fiction by Brigette B Eckert
The world we
live in today is the battleground for the ongoing war of two very
different worlds: the industrial world home, to cities and buildings,
and the natural world, home to forests and wildlife. The industrial
world attempts to take control while the natural world tries to
survive. The valley I live in is a unique in the sense that the two
worlds meet here, this constant battle is not hard to see if one just
looks around.
In the industrial world, one will see cars racing down the freeway,
or frustrated drivers sitting in traffic saying to themselves "Where
the hell did all these fricken cars come from?" and "Did you get your
license out of a cracker jack box or what?" One will see Dutch
Brothers or some other drive-thru coffee place every couple of blocks,
nine or ten cars lined up to get coffee during rush hour. Dully
colored houses with their neat little rectangular front yards
separated by fences, line up next to the street. While identical
lampposts line the side walk and light up the streets
at night along
with the lights from many buildings making nearly impossible to see
the stars. Warehouses and factories that look like they were
constructed out of left over scrape metal inhabit the industrial
world. Large smokestacks sit on top of these factories dumping
gallons of who knows what into the sky; while pieces of scrap wood and
other materials the plant process lay scattered nearby. In mid-August
a thin layer of smog might lay over the valley like a dirty blanket.
An old abandoned, boarded up, brick building sits on a corner. Its
black paint peeling off the steps, and its windows broken. Parts of
its face are covered in graffiti just like those of the train carts
that pass by it. Gas stations, shopping centers and fast food joints
seem to pop up in clusters all begging people to stop and spend their
money there. Yet with all this the industrial world is always trying
to expand its area. Construction never seems to stop, one will almost
always see new homes popping up while some road construction going on
in order to accommodate more people. Like the city itself, the people
are always stressed and busy, busyness is the essence of the city
itself.
Then in the midst of industrial world another world exists, the
natural world. The natural world still dominates in some places like
Cedar Creek Ranch. If you look around you'll see the mountains on
either side of you gradually sloping up in opposite directions. At
the very bottom of the canyon a creek, winds its way along through the
trees and bushes. Deer graze in the grass, while turkeys wander
aimlessly and the birds sing. Ducks, great herons and other creatures
stop to rest and take a drink at the ponds, and in warm weather it is
not unusual to spot garter snake taking a refreshing swim. In fall
multicolored leaves lay scattered across the forest floor while others
continue to fall. In the winter, the trees and ground may be covered
in snow, or frost so dense that it has been dubbed "pseudo snow". In
the spring wildflowers bloom all over the place, and between the trees
perfect spots just to lay down and think, exist. In summer wild
strawberries cover the forest floor and swimming in the ponds is
always a way to escape the summer heat. On clear nights the stars
shine brightly, and on warm summer nights I lay down out side and
watch the stars, and sometimes see them shooting across the sky. When
I take a walk into the woods I can forget about the busyness, chaos
and stress of everyday life and all the things I have to do.
The struggle between these two worlds is constant. A push by the
industrial world towards one gigantic continuous metropolitan
separated only by the ocean itself. We need to conserve what little
of natural world we have left. These worlds cannot coexist on top of
each other, because in the end one ends up devouring the other, and
usually the industrial world seems to come out on top. I look at
creeks in the parks that I used to play in during the summer when I
was younger, and now during the summer there is a hazardous sign due
to pollution. Unless something is done this seems to be the fate of
the rest of the natural world.
Brigette B Eckert age 17, contact:
figet77@hotmail.com
Copyright 2005 Brigette Eckert
Reviews and comments requested
Posted 05/01/2005
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