Life Through Windows
We need to stop thinking of humans as apart from Nature and start realizing we are a part of it.
Our society has become seriously isolated from nature. We are chronically indoors, where the ambient temperature hovers year-round at 72 degrees, kept there by our fear of discomfort. The typical American's daily experience with the outdoors revolves around walking to and from buildings to our vehicles and then watching through tinted windows. Our experience of nature is just one viewed through glass as if the outdoors were some museum exhibit.
Even when we venture into nature, we take a “Look, Don’t Touch” approach to nature. We stay on paved sidewalks or, at the very least, well-worn paths. Insensible shoes and anxieties over Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus keep us on those paths.
And so, at the very best, we are nothing more than casual observers—never participants. Gazing at the landscape from a scenic bypass is not all that different from looking at pictures of trees on our phones. We're there, but not really there.
This alienation from nature costs us. It's apparent in our rates of depression and anxiety, in our children's attention problems, and in our growing waistlines. We need fresh air and exercise to have healthy bodies.
We also need trees, butterflies, and night skies unhampered by street lights for healthy minds and spirits.
At least every once in a while, we need to get our hands dirty, to be too cold or too hot, to be out of breath from a good hike uphill. We need to stop and smell the flowers, the pine trees, and the mud after a downpour.
Because we do belong.
We are not meant to be seen only through window glass either.
In just a few days, I’ll be driving and camping my way across a good portion of this fantastic country. The plan is to hit nine national parks — New River Gorge, Indiana Dunes, Badlands, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, and Great Smoky Mountains (interspersed with visits to a few state parks along the way).
This is bucket list stuff for me. I’m incredibly stoked to get out from behind the window glass and get my hiking boots dirty.
Be prepared for extra updates over the next few weeks as I share some cool outdoor adventures.
Where I am this Week
I am humbled to have been a guest on an awesome podcast this week. The Hunter Farmer Artisan Podcast with Ryan Garrett focuses on people who are working hard to ensure that hunting and the conservation values it represents stay around for generations to come. I’m totally down for that.
I got to chat about some misconceptions non-hunters have about my treasured hunting lifestyle. I also talked about my dad and how he laid the foundation for my career as an outdoors writer. You should totally listen.
Quote that Made Me Go Hmmm
“A national park is not a playground. It’s a sanctuary for nature and for humans who will accept nature on nature’s own terms.”
Michael Frome
"And so, at the very best, we are nothing more than casual observers—never participants. Gazing at the landscape from a scenic bypass is not all that different from looking at pictures of trees on our phones. We're there, but not really there."
This really hits home for me.
I've spent my time hiking and trail running, but I made special trips to do those things. It was still one place removed.
This year, I'm just going outside, walking around, looking at plants and trees, observing birds, and noticing things I never saw before. Like how clusters of leaves grow on branches, how bumblebees randomly seem to pick the next flower, and how feathers are lost at random locations. How people walk around with their attention only on other people as they ignore all these things around them.
Love this, Alice. I'm reminded a quote from "The Land Ethic" by Aldo Leopold:
"Perhaps the most serious obstacle impeding the evolution of a land ethic is the fact that our educational and economic system is headed away from, rather than toward, an intense consciousness of land. Your true modern is separated from the land by many middlemen, and by innumerable physical gadgets. He has no vital relation to it; to him it is the space between cities on which crops grow. Turn him loose for a day on the land, and if the spot does not happen to be a golf links or a ‘scenic’ area, he is bored stiff. If crops could be raised by hydroponics instead of farming, it would suit him very well. Synthetic substitutes for wood, leather, wool, and other natural land products suit him better than the originals. In short, land is something he has ‘outgrown.’"
True in 1940, even more true today. It's why I'm making sure a concerted effort to ensure my kids are connected to the land -- not just "in" it, but "of" it. Getting their hands dirty in the garden, helping me get my gear ready for a hunt, being there (and helping, when they can) with processing. Whenever they can, they are touching, not looking. Thank you for sharing and looking forward to reading about your trip!