Get your kids muddy and let them discover lady bugs. "Nature" is meant to be
experienced and loved, not simply watched on cable tv. This is clearly obvious to me, but just as
obviously isn't being lived by enough people.
When I was little, I lived outside most of the day. Watching morning sunlight sparkle the dew on
opening flowers was magical. I listened
to the rustling ripples of the river sliding into the day amid the first bird
calls. I smelled the damp earth and the
green of grass. I felt the soft fuzz of
a bumblebee walking on my leg.
We've separated ourselves from what matters. Children are programmed from dawn to dusk,
and adults scuttle about their business in climate controlled homes, cars, and
offices without time to touch flowers and stop to listen to the crickets and
frogs.
We make other experiences, which in our human vanity we
think are more stupendous than anything "natural". Louis XIV wanted square trees at Versailles
to show man had conquered nature -- which is another way of saying that man had
conquered God. If you're rich enough,
you don't have to be exposed to nature.
Nature is available to everyone, so it can't be special enough if you can
afford to get out of it.
We're animals. We
live, we die, and no amount of insulation is going to prevent it. We even embalm our dead to stave off that
reality instead of letting our bodies fertilize trees. If you spend time outside you can experience
the logic and peace of it all.
All this rushing around that we do, does any of it
matter? In a 100 years, will anyone
care if you won a video game, typed a great report, gave a presentation, or
painted something cute? For a very few
of us, the answer might be yes. For the
rest of us, no.
Human vanity causes mountains to be pulverized for profit
even though we all know "you can't take it with you". I know a guy who won't open his windows on a
nice day because a bug might find a way inside. "You have screens on the windows to prevent that!" Doesn't matter. He won't run the risk of nature touching him in any form. I have to wonder if any of our current mass
shooters spent enough time outdoors.
I came home from work the other day pissed off. My brother said, "Maybe you need a walk
in the woods?" Yeah, probably --
but I'm pissed and walking in the woods will make me feel better. I'm angry.
I want blood! We took a walk. I raged for about 1/10 of a mile and got
distracted by cattails, chipmunks, cute dog, cute guy, birds over a pond...
I came home and painted my floor at an average rate of 4
leaves/hr plus a leg cramp. Since there
are hundreds of leaves, this project will take 4 lifetimes, but maybe at the
end there will be something that survives me in 100 years. Maybe I'll achieve a higher peace in the
meantime? But one thing I know for sure
is that in 100 years I'd rather be fertilizer for a tree that holds a bird nest
than to be remembered for pulverizing a mountain.
