The PNM episode was not without its benefits. Under Myrna’s tutelage I learned how to fight the power. I wrote legal briefs to the Department of Energy, spent endless hours on the telephone with government officials, and much to my astonishment hijacked a PNM public gathering by standing on a chair and making an impromptu, impassioned speech. We eventually won the battle —the company withdrew its application — and in the process I discovered a fighting spirit and ability I did not know I possessed. But the downside was the discovery that our small corner of the Sonoran desert was not invulnerable to change, and that the proximity of Saguaro National Park, Tucson Mountain County Park, and a federally owned wildlife corridor did not automatically immunize us against development efforts. A few years later, Si Schorr, a member of the State Transportation Board from Tucson and a loyal servant of development interests, spearheaded a drive to build an Interstate 10 bypass that would follow a similar route, blasting through the wildlife corridor and creating a permanent eyesore in the view shed (and ear shed) of the parks. I fought that with equal vigor, and my public activities, which made me anathema to the Transportation Board, also led to an appointment to the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission. The bypass will never be built, but the experience added to my sense of unease even while it nourished deeper roots in Tucson.