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Watched the report on "60 Minutes" about Joel Osteen, the indefatigably upbeat Houston preacher loved by millions. Apparently, he is blessed with an optimistic brain chemistry.

Lucky guy.

Now, however, I am moved to witness for those of us who by nature are dark and gloomy.

To wit: Did you see the marvelous map of Albuquerque and its proposed growth, published in the Sept. 17 Tribune as part of the "2020 Vision" series? It suggests our city could double in area and population by then, nearly filling what looks like a huge, geographic box. Not necessarily good news.

It reminded me of the big, rectangular maps the community pondered during the administration of David Rusk, Albuquerque's mayor from 1977-81.

That was the last time the city seriously considered the wisdom of expanding its borders to the max, the better to shape and harness the nuclear energy of metro area growth, so it wouldn't break containment.

I was a big fan of the forward thinking back then.

Here was the idea: Looked at broadly, the Albuquerque area's growth was limited to an enormous box. Eventually, it would bump into Laguna Pueblo and Ca¤oncito on the west, Zia Pueblo on the north, the Sandia Mountains on the east and Isleta Pueblo on the south. Put as much of that land as possible under a single government, and you could rationally plan, provide for and direct metro area growth.

For example, you could feather growth at the urban edges - diminishing it until it's entirely rural by the time it hits the pueblos and forests. You could avoid the contentiousness of "urban balkanization," in which independent jurisdictions behave toward one another much as the Serbs and Croats of the former Yugoslavia.

Perhaps most important, you could unify the metro area tax base, thereby defeating the "doughnut effect," in which resources flee from the inner city to the suburbs.

Oh, well.

Since then, Rio Rancho has incorporated, voters have repeatedly rejected city-county unification, the South Valley and West Side have schemed to become independent and on and on.

The metro area apparently never will have that kind of unity, nor will there be any "feathering" of growth - as the pueblos charge ahead with casino-related developments and as subdivisions continue to sprawl outside city limits from Bernalillo to Belen. The box will fill, but it will circumscribe Babel, not Utopia.

The optimists among us might say fine: A smaller, more-Jeffersonian, decentralized approach to metro government is better. Albuquerque will save money by not having to fix the growth-related problems of its suburbs. We'll work it all out.

But pessimists like me imagine increasing opportunities for internecine conflicts. Global warming will increase, and resources - particularly water - will decline. Morals will collapse. Self-centeredness will rule.

What lives are spared by small-scale warfare largely will be claimed by plague, pestilence and poverty. We'll end with a modern-day, post-apocalyptic Chaco Canyon - only butt-ugly.

I like the infectious Osteen, but he's no Viktor Frankl. Only those who know how to suffer will endure.