What is Harmony and Balance?

Rob Bernshaw

Rob Bernshaw, Columnist

In our daily fast paced rush to the future, have we neglected the harmony and balance that has got us to where we are now?

As with any words, many meanings can be derived, depending on the experiences and education of each individual.

To some the sights, smells and sounds of urban living, is the harmony and balance that lulls them to sleep at night.

To others the sights, smells and sounds of the rural environment are a soothing balm to the soul.

As our society advances, it seems that the urban juggernaut is expanding and rolling over the rural countryside in an unstoppable mass, that will one day engulf the planet in a coruscant style landscape.


As a society what are we doing to realize, the rural area, is the bread basket needed, to stock the larders, shelves and counter tops of the world.
What as a society are we doing to preserve and encourage rural farms and the agricultural environment  in order for people, living in urban centers to have their daily bread? Has living in the urban environment blinded us to the fact that food does not come from the freezers and coolers of the local supermarket or big box stores.? Have we forgotten the roots of  our sustenance in a mad dash for riches and fame? Has money become our sustenance? Have we forgotten, that a balance between rural and urban lifestyles is needed, more than ever today, in order to ensure the continued  survival and progression of our society.

Is more education and openness needed between urban and rural environments, in order to help develop an understanding, that without the rural environment, both environments will eventually fade into obscurity!
There is a synergy between urban and rural environments, without one there is not the other!

As urban centers gobble up more and more prime agricultural land, as the perceived  need for money grows, over the actual need for harmony and balance.

There are many urban centers that are coming to a slow realization that rural agriculture is what sustains us today, and are developing strategies to encourage urban agriculture and techniques to help preserve class 1 agricultural land within their boundaries. Is it too little too late?

In Alberta, as in many other provinces and countries around the world, there seems to be a race to the bottom in developing prime agricultural land around urban centers. This is prime real estate;  worth a lot more money, if subdivided and developed, than it would, by keeping it zoned as agricultural land!
Is the land developer\speculator at fault, for this massive development of our prime agricultural farmland? Is it the farmers fault for allowing this to happen, by selling to the highest bidder, land that has been in a family for generations?
Who or what is to blame for massive tracts of land disappearing under our very eyes?

Because there is currently no legislation in place to regulate and keep agricultural land zoned as farm land, free of development and takeover, is it the government of all levels to blame for this current imbalance?
We all love our freedoms here in Canada and hope this will remain so, as we all cry for less government, but without some sort of regulations or regulatory body in place, to preserve the zoning of  agricultural lands, in order to provide the food on our tables, then chaos could be the ultimate price we pay for progress!

Is constant development the way, or do we need to come up with a better solution to maintain prime agricultural real estate, within the urban environment, walking hand in hand together towards a better future for all?

Each one of us looks at the same picture with different results.

For example please take a good look at the following picture obtained off of www.moillusions.com and what do you see?

www.moillusions.com graphic

Until we all see the same picture or on the same page and looking out for the well being of all around us, then there will probably always be one view, of what price is right, to keep our individual world turning along the path we call progress! What about the rest of society and their needs, what is the end result of only looking as far as our individual world, without considering the consequences of constant development?

What is the price of progress?

Is it about the money?

Or is it about the symmetry and synergy of working together in harmony and balance, with what we have, by being thankful for being able to protect our agricultural roots, alongside urban development.  As a result, we will be able to  dance together towards a better future for all, as we consider the price tag of survival and the ultimate consequence, for ignoring the price, currently being paid in loss of prime agricultural real estate around our wonderful earth.

We need to learn to dance together, without it always being about our own personal world and the possible money to be made? Is the ultimate price tag worth it, for ignoring the true cost of constant development? Here is a music video by Jessie J performing Price Tag, featuring B.o.B. (C) 2010 Universal Republic Records

Quote by Sallust(Roman Historian, Born 86 BC):
 "Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay."