A movie that made me think: The Descendants

  My wife and I don't get to go to the movies as much as we would like, but over the Holidays we managed to make a trip to the Carmike on Airport road. I kind of admire George Clooney, so when she suggested we see his latest, "The Descendants" I agreed.
   It had a good primary plot about a husband (Clooney) who discovers after his wife suffers a traumatic brain injury that she has been having an affair. As he follows her wishes and ends all life sustaining care, he works out life issues with his two daughters, one 17, the other 10.
   It's a nice story, and thought provoking on many levels. But there is a secondary storyline that really got my attention. Clooney's character is being pressured to sell off large tracts of land that his family has owned for over a century. The sale would put millions of dollars in the pockets of his many relatives. Most favor the sale, but some don't believing the family has an obligation to protect the land from over development.
   And it got me thinking about what's going on in my own back yard, as one old farming family seems intent on squeezing every last dollar it can out of its vast local land holdings.
      In the movie, Clooney's character decides not to sell, and vows to find a way to protect the land for future generations. In a perfect world, the local land baron would see the film, and have a change of heart about his drive to pave over every possible acre of farmland he can.
   But we don't live in a perfect world, as a matter of fact, I live in the Macungies, and out here it is all about building as many warehouses and townhomes as fast as we can everywhere we can, traffic and infrastructure issues be damned. Quality of life? Who cares?
    I wish there was a way to remind our local land baron of just what he is pandering, and making him take a look at just what he has created. No amount of charitable donation will bring back all the farmland that has been lost. The green of lush fields has been replaced by blacktop and the reflective glare from row after row of shingled roofs. Trees give us breathable fresh air. Asphalt and tar give us....asthma attacks.

      Oh well....Nature has a funny way of putting things in balance. I wonder how that will come about, and I wonder if I will live long enough to see it.