“breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain….”
The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot
I read a story in the news today about a solar power plant popping up near the Chernobyl site in Ukraine. It can produce enough electricity for 2,000 homes. I see it as producing a whole lot of hope, too. (Link: Chernobyl’s uninhabitable land is the home of a new solar plan)
Just think of it, us humans have found a way to produce something useful from land we made uninhabitable for 24,000 years. Both of those facts are staggering. It brings something useful and positive from devastation. It gives me hope like its Easter Sunday. Or seeing the first buds of spring.
On the flipside, I can’t help but worry about the workers who had to install the mechanics. I don’t know how joyful anyone can be if men and women are being put in harm’s way. I worry, too, about the postal service workers who handled the envelopes suspected of containing ricin last week.
But if the Ukrainian installers were safely monitored and they were willing to take the risks, I think it was a noble cause.
They found a way to harness the power of nature in a part of the world left abandoned and dangerous by our human hands. The area had stood as a museum of horrors, the setting that quite literally should have a “No Entry Beyond This Point” sign.
Now, perhaps a tiny shoot of promise rises up from the wasteland.
Christina's New Deal 