Dear HCN,
I lived and worked in and
near Zion Canyon for 12 years, and during that time the two old
pioneer towns at the mouth of the canyon experienced rapidly rising
population pressures, both from visitors and new
residents.
Most of the work available in the
canyon entailed contact with a portion of the million-plus visitors
to Zion National Park. This can be stressful to those who
winter-over with a few hundred others in either Springdale or
Rockville.
One Sunday, after an exhausting
six-day, two-job week, I refused to open our little rock shop for a
belligerent tourist from New York. He pulled out his wallet,
extracted his credit card and shoved it in my face. That sent me
crying into the hills – which have since been built
on.
The closest swimming hole became increasingly
popular, far beyond hope of privacy. The best, and best-hidden,
local escape was publicized by one woman on T-shirts, but word of
mouth was what really ruined it. The last time I went up, gangs of
kids with blaring ghetto blasters had taken it over. Then, the most
incredible petroglyph panels were so indiscriminately disclosed
that the kind of people who aren’t satisfied to “do” it, but who
also feel they must “have” it gained access.
I
toyed with the idea of writing about the country for years, but
came to see many travel writers as unethical outsiders who profit
by “selling” the local quality of life.
It also
became clear to me that our society has no real sense of the sacred
and the need for retreat. Democracy does not create equally
respectful or responsible citizens.
Some of us
have learned. You don’t speak of places that touch one’s soul to
those who will not respect them. If unsure, I suggest acting
conservatively; protecting place, privacy and the community’s
quality of life. For me, it took years of living in one place to
develop this ethic. The first line of defense may be
silence.
Lynn C.
Bornholdt
Olympia,
Washington
P.S. I enjoyed
Stephen Lyons’ “Don’t worry: Have a Kokopelli day.” Then I saw this
Golfer-Pelli in the Wireless
catalog.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Shh… don’t tell, can be a good defense.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
