Celebrating our Park – No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

EDITORIAL FOR TOMORROW’S ISSUE OF THE TECUMSEH TRIBUNE 

How wonderful it is that the Town has secured the funds needed to develop our Tecumseh waterfront park. We should all celebrate this news as the property at the end of Manning Rd. is a gorgeous place to be with family and friends. It gives unfettered access to our Lake St. Clair and allows us to interact with nature.  Some may not fashion themselves environmentalist, but we should realize that we all engage our environment for better or worse whether we realize it or not.

This announcement is important for all of us who live in a ‘built environment.’  North Americans treasure cities. We build our neighbourhoods with great planning and try and make them interactive spaces for living, working, and playing.  That is what is known as the  ‘built environment.’ We are urban creatures nowadays and many of us have long forgotten the beauty and wonder of what it means to interact with the earth.  When we see vacant space our attention often turns to what it might profit us. We value property by the foot and square foot, placing a price on what was a part of the created order that was and is truly priceless. The fact that we are not developing the waterfront property at Manning and Riverside Drive causes my heart to sing. For me this is a spiritual matter. I believe that we are called to take part in creating our built environment. I hold strongly to the notion that believers should celebrate this announcement as an opportunity to now speak about the need to embrace the fact that there needs to be space wherein we can reconnect with God in soil, grass, sand, water, and open air. Thi gives us opportunity to thank our council and mayor for not giving into greed. The per foot cost of that property is high, the loss of it to more urbanization is even higher. It is a cost that cannot be paid in human currency.  Barry Commoner writes in The Closing Circle:

“everything is connected to everything else.
everything must go somewhere
nature knows best
there is no such thing as a free lunch.”