Monday, July 25, 2016

Has the Salt Lake Valley Blossomed as a Rose?

   Ah, then, is the Salt Lake Valley one of the fulfillments of that biblical prophecy that, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." -- Isaiah 35
   Not sure how this valley qualifies as a desert, critics might fire back. It rains and snows often enough. It's not a rain haven like Seattle, but it is hardly a desert.
   I think to say, it is not like you can open up a map and see something called the Great Salt Lake Desert. Actually, though, there is. The Great Salt Lake Desert stretches to the west, towards Nevada, a dry lake bed, layered in salt.
   But, that area hardly has blossomed as a rose. As I say that, I think of my own posts of the past, and of how I would turn the area into a massive tourist zone. I don't say it would be on the salt bed, but it would be in the area next to it.
   I think on the Isaiah passage, and of how it says it will be a solitary place. I wonder but what that is reference to a place that was uninhabited, solitary.
   I also consider that maybe the Salt Lake Valley is not what was referred to in the scripture, but just has some likeness to it. I do not know.
   I do know this, the valley is not a watershed. The clouds to not burst over this valley, nor it there a large aquifer underneath. I search the Internet, and find a pie chart, showing that only 16 percent of our water comes from wells. The graph suggests that 43 percent comes from streams. If it were not for the mountains, from where much of our water pours from winter's snowfall, we would not have the water we need.
   I wonder at the condition of the valley when the pioneers arrived, and think to search the Internet, but the hour is late and I'm due for bed. Was it dry? What kind of plants were to be found. Can we say it has blossomed as a rose?
   I also wonder if the answer is literal, or figurative. Maybe it doesn't have to be plant life we are talking about, but making the area area attractive, as if a rose. I think again on my desire that we should develop the area west of the city for tourism, and make it as a rose. Maybe, in those terms, we already are an attractive city, even as a rose.
   My brother suggests the term, "desert," might be a reference to the area being uninhabited back then. Now it is teaming with people. It has blossomed as a rose.
   All these are my thoughts, this day that we celebrate as Pioneer Day. Whether the Salt Lake Valley is fulfillment the biblical passage, I do not know, for certain. But, yes, I do think it to be.

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