is back, and Your Faithful Diarist has lately been Wading in Beauty! He is currently queuing up a youtube playlist of his obsessive favorite songs, the ones he's listened to for hours on end, going back to the days when that required rewinding the cassette after each song. What are yours?
But that's not necessarily your Last Most Beautiful Thing, and it's not mine. Mine was a sweet environmental victory! I stood up at a government hearing and spoke in support of preserving some historic meadows, that were threatened with a plan to put in a 100 car parking lot, and 2 soccer fields. It was a terrible waste of one of the few remaining meadows in the area, and the days before this hearing, it seemed like the bulldozers were inevitable. But I've fought worse fights with stronger opponents, and I went into this hearing expecting to be one of the outnumbered few speaking in support of the meadows. I'd helped queue up some allies, had walked the site and met the current owners, and I knew that this place was worth fighting for.
So my last most beautiful thing is that 250 people showed up for the hearing, and 30 spoke, all in support of protecting and respecting these meadows! I don't think I've ever been in a room with so many people so unanimously committed to an environmental issue! Some were coming from the historic preservation angle, others from the due process angle, others from the increased traffic angle, but everyone stood up and said the same thing - no athletic fields here!
But this wasn't an anti-sports campaign, most people acknowledged that they recognized the importance of athletic fields, just not here, in this relatively undisturbed and historically significant site. And there's no guarantee that the site is now safe, but if anyone tries to mess with it now, there are going to be a bunch of people (including myself), probably dressed in revolutionary garb, standing against the bulldozers!
I've been through enough environmental battles, to know never to expect a successful outcome. I plan for failure, and I expect it. I fight because even when we lose, we win: we're standing up for important things. We're fighting for what's right. And when we win, it's truly beautiful. So here's a modified version of the opening paragraph from my speech, which I didn't even need to give, but did anyway:
My name is erratic, I work for a local environmental non-profit, and I am an environmentalist. I'm an environmentalist because of a stream where I played as a child, because of friends and relatives who took the time to show me the wonder of butterflies and rivers, of flowers and stars. I'm an environmentalist because of a tree I planted when I was five, because of teachers who went far beyond the required curriculum to share their love of nature with their students.
I'm an environmentalist because I've watched places I love be bulldozed and destroyed. I'm an environmentalist because of natural places of beauty that others before me fought hard to protect, to share with future generations. This meadow is one of those places, which is why I'm here today.
So you, what was your last most beautiful moment?