I have been reading some more. It is a dangerous thing to do. I have just finished a couple of mysteries by Rudolfo Anaya: Zia Summer and Rio Grande Fall. They are intriguing because the setting is in the Chicano community of Alburquerque, New Mexico. This use of an ethnic tradition with a long history provides Anaya with the opportunity to comment about the loss of those old traditions in contempoary society. The sympathetic characters are deeply rooted in the ethos of that tradition just as Anaya is touching on the magical ralism of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The bad guys are the ones who would destroy it. The PI hero, Sonny Baca, is no mere mortal.

The background is always political: the anti-nuclear movement, the Chamber of Commerce Growth is Greatness mentality, the connection of drugs and politics.

Even this genere book goes to the heart of Green Issues and leaves me with the conclusion that our new techno age, fed by the sense that only the latest is good, gotta have a video I-Pod, pay my bill with a microchip in my cell phone. Maybe what gets left behind is the feeling that the old are not longer to be valued, listened to. It will be a rude awakening for the boomers.

I wonder if the reason that there are so many older people in the Green movement is that we know how much we are losing.