Week 7 - Human Meddling and Interaction with Nature in Nature Journal

From this week’s readings, I was particularly moved by Rachel Carson’s piece, and Katharine White’s. After reading about 25 different poems, short stories and essays, these two readings stuck with me the most because of their messages.

From White’s writing, I started thinking about how we as Westerners view nature as a gift to us, something that we have control over and can do with as we please-whereas much Eastern thought is about respecting it and viewing it as a natural beauty and essence of its own. This is reflected in the DDJ all throughout, with references to following the path, taking no-action, and the general idea of acceptance.

I believe a great example is how we let our kids pluck flowers, make flower crowns and wear them, pull grass and leaves and so forth. As White mentioned in her piece, Japanese children will not instinctively pluck flowers since they respect them and are taught from a young age to not harm nature. This made me think about many different things. For one, celebrating nature in a way that actually harms it is a cruel irony that we have in this world. We use fields and flowers as we would our own belongings, flaunting them because we find them beautiful. However, instead of respecting that beauty-we take it to make our own and thus ruin the very essence of it.

On a small scale, I don’t believe this is as evil as I’ve made it out to be, it’s great to see children pick flowers for their mothers, or make flower crows for their friends. Where it becomes dangerous, is when we transfer these ideas into an adults hands, and they make a proposition to build on a swamp, or to cut down a forest, showing what they could gain from it, but not thinking about what they will lose.

This idea was further discussed in Rachel Carson’s piece. She talks about the ramifications of our actions, and how we must take all of these things into consideration before we do things. Many times, the harms outweigh the benefits. Quoting her, “Sometimes we have no choice but to disturb these relationships, but we should do so thoughtfully, with full awareness that what we do may have consequences remote in time and place.” It is rare that we proceed with this amount of caution, and we face the consequences of our hastiness and ignorance.

The one thing I draw from all of this that makes me smile, is my chosen spot to sit and write these reflections. I realised that this place is special in that they specifically took away from the parking lot and building itself to create this garden. They made minimal impact and disturbances to the Earth, and gave back some of what they took. This garden is a living example of both White and Rachel Carson’s writings. It feels calm, peaceful, and natural-as if it is thanking the people who took from their land for giving what they could back and letting it prosper.

I appreciate my spot much more after reading all of the poems and stories from this past week. I feel much better knowing that my spot was consciously made in order to give back to nature. It is also well taken care of, and not neglected.

Last updated October 12, 2018