Week 10- National Parks in Nature Journal

This week I read and discussed an article about National Parks and Sustainability written by Bob O’Brien.

I found it to be both motivational, and unfortunate in the pictures it painted.

Since we’ve officially hit November, the weather has cooled considerably. I came to my nature spot in great spirits, and with an open mind and heart. One of the things I have mentioned before, but still find important, is that this place was made intentionally. Jewish faith promotes environmental friendliness and mindfulness. They even have a special holiday for trees! This reminded me of my readings this week with National Parks and Sustainability. The piece I read mentions how important it is that we continue to protect land, and how great it is that we did implement such a thing. It also discusses the many benefits of Eco-tourism and wilderness travel and adventure. Much like these National Parks, this piece of land is protected and kept clean by people at the synagogue. It is sacred, and a place for reflection and immersion in nature and its beauty. It is also, as the piece mentions ‘ordinary’. Though it is beautiful, there is nothing luxurious or breath-taking about it. It is a small piece of land that is cared for as if it were the grand-Canyon, yet it is small and unknown to most people even in El Paso. Although it is not a large Eco-system, it is a great model of how we should respect and protect the environment, no matter how small or ‘ordinary’ it may seem.

If we don’t protect things such as the desert, our swamp-lands, forests, and coral reefs, we could face mass extinction of animals, plants, and insects. This would ultimately lead to the end of humanity, and possibly the Earth. When we set rules for places of beauty, but ignore the rest, we are setting up the idea that only the beautiful things matter.

From reading the DDJ and studying Chinese thought and philosophy, I can recall from my previous semester especially that we discussed the concept of beauty and what makes something beautiful. It was a difficult concept to grasp and explain, but all in all the idea was to not name things, or give them attributes-but rather to just accept them and let them exist. By name-calling and assigning meaning, we are taking a ‘side’. When applying this to nature, we are assigning importance to things that may or may not be as important to these so-called ‘ordinary’ things.

To conclude this post, I would like to reflect on the ways we can apply this idea to our own race as well. With all of the hate and ‘name-calling’ we have, we neglect the ordinary and assign meaning to certain people based off of the masses. In the end, we are all people, we must all protect and nurture each other-just like with the environment. If we do not pay attention to these ‘ordinary’ things, bad things-disastrous things will occur.

Last updated November 01, 2018