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Throughout the literature of natural resources and the rural environment there is testimony to the beauty of nature, the feelings of being in special places and relations, of awe and wonder, and awareness of the continuity of life. These have been poetic, religous, and metaphysical responses and they have often been very personal and for many undiscussable. "Words could not describe..." are often the words used.
Economists have sketched efforts to describe these value and benefits and many have classified them as non-consumptive, non-market, or esthetic.
We are fully aware of these benefits. We see them entering the market as poems, writing, photographs, and art. We also see them as lectures and sermons with observable costs. We see them as parts of paid experiences and conditions - a place to which visitors may be guided, the extra paying visitors one superior place garners over another. We do not usually assign relative value to known inspirational spots or areas. They are or are not, an integer valuation. We know that special inspirations can come at any time; they are instantaneous and rarely predictable. Nevertheless there are some areas recognized by many as inspirational. Their presence satisfies an objective and contributes to others within the total Rural System objectives, and that comes at a cost. The likely inspiration of a moderately large group of people is the criterion for an area, a scene, a text, an art object, an action by an athlete or hero....the display of a discovery or idea.
Inspiration overlaps with "Ideas" and we need not develop a conflict with it. We tend to think of inspiration as encouraging, potentiating, motivating, adding, promoting health, and often having private religous or metaphysical dimensions.
We forego some gains to achieve the potentials of inspiration. We pay to gain inspiration or the opportunities for it for customers and clients. Inspiration, rarely seen as objective or a commodity, is very much a part of Rural System work, and its encouragement, care, influence, expansion, management, and protection in socially beneficial ways directly affects the system profits.
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Rural System
Robert H. Giles, Jr.
June 28, 2005