Living Here
Article by Terry O’Neill, reporter, and former Lake Geneva alderperson:
Approaching the possible end of Hillmoor for the third or fourth time should remind all of us that life rings throughout it with the sound of a distant good-bye. Nothing made in this universe lasts forever as it is. Everything that is of this world has a beginning, a middle and an end. It may last a short time or it may be here for a long time, but everything that is of this world is only here for a while before it’s gone. Efforts to preserve the beauty of what is here, it’s history, and recognizing who built what is a noble effort and it helps shape and guide us into the future, but no matter how great those efforts to preserve are, or how worthwhile manmade projects are, delaying inevitable entropy and decay is all that is possible because all things have a place under heaven.
What then is the purpose of putting effort into a cause or building something that will certainly be doomed to extinction? The most likely purpose can be described as three-fold:
first, doing so makes living better until the inevitable makes its later appearance;
second, doing so extends the time before that entropy and decay set in;
third, doing so builds what is called human civilization, making life so much longer and more comfortable.
Like maintaining, repairing and improving the living conditions of a house, doing so improves those conditions and lengthens the life of the house and those who might live in it, no matter for how long.
That brings us to the efforts to save Geneva Lake, Hillmoor, the scenic road running by Big Foot Park, keeping Wrigley drive open to traffic, the Geneva Theater, Library Park, and more. The effort to do so is eventually doomed to failure over time, but the effort improves the quality of life for those who are alive today and helps to preserve it for those who come along later in the future. That future could be for only a couple of years or for thousands of centuries. Only time will tell for how long, and how many, will benefit from these efforts. It is also important to understand that some undertakings can take many years, even generations, with only slow progress, and some efforts may never succeed, but they must be considered worth the effort, much like the effort to make humanity better and more understanding of one another.
In the beginning, everyone is given a unique bit of life, a living consciousness as it were, that leads to self-awareness. That self-awareness of being and knowing of our own existence is that special light within us that makes us each a unique being. That special ‘light’ is the same light that is in everyone. Life is unique for each human being, while also being the common element inside all of us, and in that common element we are all equal and the same. What we see when we look into a mirror is different, however, but that which sees our reflection is the same in you as it is in me, and everyone else, and the actions that we take in our lives should be worthy of the image we see in that proverbial mirror. Everything affects everything, and each day starts as the total sum of everything from the past, and then adds a tiny bit to that sum, ever so slightly altering the world for that day and the days that will follow. One of life’s main goals should be to make each day, and the days that follow, a little better.
That is what saving Hillmoor, and the other wonderful structures and features that make up Geneva Lake is all about.
Person of the Week
Kate Meredith is wonderful and very enthusiastic about Yerkes and education. She is an advocate for GLAS and it’s the newest adventure in video production. Donations can be made at www.glaseducation.org
