Years from now we may look back on the ?Great Oil Rush of 2012? as the event that launched a new age of prosperity in Marion County?or as the punch line for a joke about one more ?much ado about nothing? that titilated our collective imagination for a brief time with no measurable result.
Before we know which option prevails, if either, can we determine now to not allow the outcome to damage our commitment to community? Many a youth pastor has counseled young people that the back seat of a car is not the place to forge convictions about appropriate sexual conduct. In the same way, it would be wise of us to reaffirm our economic values before they are tested by the reality of sudden wealth.
We have never experienced an oil boom firsthand, and we have no promise that we ever will. But we have observed enough from afar to know that we are weak minded if we presume to be strong enough to avoid the moral deterioration that good fortune so often brings.
Economic wealth is peddled as the American Dream. Let?s hold to the truth that true wealth is found in the commitments we make to each other. ?DR
