My Place of the Heart: McMillan Mesa
In my work, I have to make my case to the public for either the value or detriment of particular policies or proposals. I’m used to making this case based on existing policies or precedents set by other communities. I try to use specific facts and statistics and keep my arguments to issues within the purview of either the City Council or the Board of Supervisors.
But my feelings about many issues, including open space, go much deeper than I can rationalize. When I walk upon McMillan Mesa, my heart is filled with a love that I can’t condense into a three-minute presentation in order to persuade decision makers that a place such as this should be saved. Because I’m not used to expressing myself with a poet’s words, I stumble along in my explanations about why I love McMillan Mesa.
I love McMillan Mesa because it’s where I went during a very difficult personal time in my life. I would meet my kindred spirit Roxane there to walk, talk, and cry. I would take my dog, Luke, there and stand on the trail, looking at the Peaks and cry. I needed this place of refuge.
I love McMillan Mesa because I walk there at sunset with my beloved Nikolai and talk about our days. I can look up at the San Francisco Peaks and at Mt Elden and be awed time and again that I’m lucky enough to live in a place where I have so many friends and where such spectacular beauty surrounds me.
The controversy surrounding saving McMillan Mesa from development humbles me because I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know if I can argue this one before the decision makers and win. I do believe that enough people in this community love this place and others like it and if all these people come together, we can save our most treasured places. We can save McMillan Mesa.
Until a solution is found and money is secured to purchase this precious place, I will continue to walk the Mesa’s trails with a sense of immense love but also uncertainty—uncertainty about the fate of this beautiful place and uncertainty about myself as a community activist
Until the Mesa is saved, I will continue to reach down to feel her soil and see if my answers lie somewhere beneath.