Considering Nature
My thoughts on nature are of course going to be framed in both my experiences of it and in the ways that my attitude towards it has changed throughout my life. To start off, I lived in Maine for ten years of my very early childhood. I grew up in a trailer park that was surrounded by a thick wood, which was home to just about every variety of far-northern woodland creature. In spring, for example, my bus stop would often have to be moved because of a bull moose’s wanderings during the mating season. At all times of the year, I was often in the woods with my friends. Nature, for me, was whatever lived just outside the bounds of the trailer park that I grew up in.
I also grew up with Captain Planet and a good number of other environmentally focused programming. To this day, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and William Horwood's The Willows in Winter remain two of my most cherished reads. During elementary school, we would often have special guests come and give a presentation on protecting the environment. I don’t know how many times my sister and I watched Fern Gulley together. Disney’s Pocahontas (and really, who can paint with all the colors of the wind?) was released just as I was entering junior high school. All of these special talks and environmental messages helped shape for me this idea of nature as some damsel in distress, ever at the mercy of humans with their technology and corporate greed.
As I became older and more politically minded, I had a sort of “white knight” syndrome with respect to my thoughts on nature. I wasn’t about to go sign up for Greenpeace, but I certainly had a disdain for drivers of SUVs, and I wondered why nobody had outlawed them yet. As a commercial contract cleaner, I was rarely out in nature anymore, and perhaps this fueled my desire to see preserved that aspect of my childhood that I remembered so fondly. I had a chip on my shoulder towards all things chemical (curiously enough, because, again, I was a cleaner) and mechanical, as, in my mind, these were most certainly not nature. This attitude lasted for several years, but even before my conversion to Christianity, I began to question this notion that nature was utterly separate from mankind, and that the fate of nature was thoroughly in man’s hands.
Revelations about the so-called “Climategate” caused me to question the authority with which many in the scientific community made proclamations about the dire straights that the environment supposedly was in. My switch from a sort of quasi-agnostic spirituality to Christianity brought about for me a radical rethinking of what nature meant to me. For once I viewed nature in light of scripture, and this forced me to consider just what scripture had to say about mankind, and whether humanity had a unique role in creation, or whether he was just another animal. For a time, the pendulum had swung the other way for me in regards to my thoughts on nature, and I had almost a certain contempt for anything that our culture considered nature. This less attractive attitude towards the natural was thankfully short-lived, as I experienced nature once more, this time during military language training in California.
For two years, I was fortunate to be stationed at the beautiful Presidio of Monterey, California. I walked nearly every day through the woods that separated my barracks from my schoolhouse, and I was keenly aware of the changes that took place throughout Monterey’s two seasons. The constant exposure to lush greenery, combined with California’s pervasive appreciation for nature, helped me find what I feel to be a more balanced view of nature. More recently, I’ve found that I really enjoy gardening, and someday I’d like to have a small farm. My new hobby has made me consider more carefully what is natural in regards to plants, and thus, food.
My farming aspirations have given rise to hours of research into more natural methods of raising produce. I believe that in the area where environment meets food, there are things that are objectively natural or unnatural, such as using organic farming methods as opposed to those based on petrochemicals. It may be somewhat less than altruistic, but in this regard, I value what is good for the environment, because the environment is producing my food.
Now, a better understanding of scripture, as well as a renewed appreciation for the environment (for a number of reasons), shapes my view of nature. I take stock of mankind’s dual natures; we are carnal beings, making use of the same material facilities as the “beasts of the field.” It is our unique personal nature, however, that allows us to rise above our baser instincts when those instincts come in conflict with our worship of God or with the wellbeing of our fellow man. To very briefly respond to Kate Soper’s essay on the nature of man, it seems to me that it is this personal aspect of humans that defines “human nature,” this ability to act of our own free will and choose against the urges of our flesh. I feel that this personality that we have also allows us to make wise decisions regarding our treatment of the environment. While I do not hold every tree or whale sacred, I do believe that it is important to make wise use of the resources that we’ve been given, rather than squandering them at the peril of not only our immediate neighbors, but also those of future generations.
I also grew up with Captain Planet and a good number of other environmentally focused programming. To this day, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and William Horwood's The Willows in Winter remain two of my most cherished reads. During elementary school, we would often have special guests come and give a presentation on protecting the environment. I don’t know how many times my sister and I watched Fern Gulley together. Disney’s Pocahontas (and really, who can paint with all the colors of the wind?) was released just as I was entering junior high school. All of these special talks and environmental messages helped shape for me this idea of nature as some damsel in distress, ever at the mercy of humans with their technology and corporate greed.
As I became older and more politically minded, I had a sort of “white knight” syndrome with respect to my thoughts on nature. I wasn’t about to go sign up for Greenpeace, but I certainly had a disdain for drivers of SUVs, and I wondered why nobody had outlawed them yet. As a commercial contract cleaner, I was rarely out in nature anymore, and perhaps this fueled my desire to see preserved that aspect of my childhood that I remembered so fondly. I had a chip on my shoulder towards all things chemical (curiously enough, because, again, I was a cleaner) and mechanical, as, in my mind, these were most certainly not nature. This attitude lasted for several years, but even before my conversion to Christianity, I began to question this notion that nature was utterly separate from mankind, and that the fate of nature was thoroughly in man’s hands.
Revelations about the so-called “Climategate” caused me to question the authority with which many in the scientific community made proclamations about the dire straights that the environment supposedly was in. My switch from a sort of quasi-agnostic spirituality to Christianity brought about for me a radical rethinking of what nature meant to me. For once I viewed nature in light of scripture, and this forced me to consider just what scripture had to say about mankind, and whether humanity had a unique role in creation, or whether he was just another animal. For a time, the pendulum had swung the other way for me in regards to my thoughts on nature, and I had almost a certain contempt for anything that our culture considered nature. This less attractive attitude towards the natural was thankfully short-lived, as I experienced nature once more, this time during military language training in California.
For two years, I was fortunate to be stationed at the beautiful Presidio of Monterey, California. I walked nearly every day through the woods that separated my barracks from my schoolhouse, and I was keenly aware of the changes that took place throughout Monterey’s two seasons. The constant exposure to lush greenery, combined with California’s pervasive appreciation for nature, helped me find what I feel to be a more balanced view of nature. More recently, I’ve found that I really enjoy gardening, and someday I’d like to have a small farm. My new hobby has made me consider more carefully what is natural in regards to plants, and thus, food.
My farming aspirations have given rise to hours of research into more natural methods of raising produce. I believe that in the area where environment meets food, there are things that are objectively natural or unnatural, such as using organic farming methods as opposed to those based on petrochemicals. It may be somewhat less than altruistic, but in this regard, I value what is good for the environment, because the environment is producing my food.
Now, a better understanding of scripture, as well as a renewed appreciation for the environment (for a number of reasons), shapes my view of nature. I take stock of mankind’s dual natures; we are carnal beings, making use of the same material facilities as the “beasts of the field.” It is our unique personal nature, however, that allows us to rise above our baser instincts when those instincts come in conflict with our worship of God or with the wellbeing of our fellow man. To very briefly respond to Kate Soper’s essay on the nature of man, it seems to me that it is this personal aspect of humans that defines “human nature,” this ability to act of our own free will and choose against the urges of our flesh. I feel that this personality that we have also allows us to make wise decisions regarding our treatment of the environment. While I do not hold every tree or whale sacred, I do believe that it is important to make wise use of the resources that we’ve been given, rather than squandering them at the peril of not only our immediate neighbors, but also those of future generations.