It doesn't balance. If I have any resentment toward the whole thing and
toward more and more people coming, it's because of that. I mentioned
earlier that I have a lot of images in my head that I'd like to get.
It's those images like the dirt road or the old barn or the tobacco
field. Those are the things that I see that are going to be gone. And I
think they're going to be gone whether the road comes or not. It's just
a matter of time. I see the road not so much as its own problem; it's
just sort of a symptom of development and growth in general that was
going to find Madison County sooner or later anyway. But I hope that
there are parts of the county that retain that. And hopefully I'll be
able to go visit.
[Laughter] I mean, there
are still a lot of places around here— close around—that I'll take the
kids down to the river all the time, and we'll throw rocks in the river.
So, we do a lot of those kinds of things. But that's the hardest part of
it, in my mind. Is seeing a way of life—it wasn't really my way of
life—but seeing the mountain culture be whittled away a little bit more,
a little bit more, a little bit more until it's something in a museum. I
know we're practically there now, but I don't want to accept that, I
guess. And I want to see a balance between development and—I don't know
what you call it—I guess, culture. But it's hard to strike. I've seen it
in Mexico,
Page 25 down in Chiapas. The Lacandon Indians.
They just built a big road back into the rain forest into some of the
ruins. You know, it's opened up that whole part of the world. Well,
they're able to sell their artisania. They've got a certain amount of
control of the road. They make people pay a little toll to go through.
So, it's bringing income to that community, and the young people in that
community aren't really interested in living the way their parents
lived. So who am I to say that they need to maintain that culture or
keep living the way that they've always lived for my benefit? So I can
go look at them or something? I see the same kind of thing happening
here. People want to improve their lives, and they want to have more
money. They want to have more things. But there is a balance there
between quality of life and having all the goodies.