Connecting with Nature: A Love Story
As humans, we love the idea of love. It makes us feel happy, sentimental, even crazy sometimes. Love is one of the most important things to us and we search our whole lives trying to find it. Today, I want to share a different kind of love story. This love story is about humans and nature.
From a historical view, our overall relationship with nature has been a rocky one. In fact, most of American’s current environmental beliefs systems has been influences by colonization and religion of early settlers in America. First, the idea of “manifest destiny” created an ideology that nature was meant for humanity to tame and conquer. Additionally, Christianity was used to create the idea that nature was made for man’s use. These ideas are still present in the current environmental ideology of many Americans (Corbett, 2006). We can see this in the mass deforestation in the amazon, or oil drilling in Alaska, or any other environmental damage that is occurring for the benefit of man. So how can we change our current environmental beliefs systems? The answer lies within a love story:
Growing up, my family and I took a trip every year to Yosemite National Park. Even to this day, I have never been in a place that evokes as much emotions in me as Yosemite does. Thinking about it now, I can still smell the fresh mountain air and can still feel the butterflies in my stomach from looking at the magnificent granite structures. I remember each year, as I invoked on my journey into that magnificent landscape feeling nothing but love for the earth around me. This love for nature stayed with throughout my adulthood and developed my values, believes, and attitudes towards the environment.
My love story with nature ignited my passion and action towards protecting the environment and it is a love story I ask everyone to think deeply about in their own context. For me, I was lucky enough to have direct experiences through nature. I was able to physically interact with nature many times throughout my childhood. In other words, through my direct experience with nature I was able to create a sense of place with nature and give it meaning and value. If I did not experience this as a child, I may not hold the same believes or values toward nature that I do today. In fact, “it is well documented that the experiences we gain from special outdoor haunts as children are carried through — with knowledge added and reinterpretations made — to adulthood” (Corbett, 2006).
So, you may be asking: Why is this love story so important? Well, in order to have the motivation to protect the environment, we must first create a relationship with the natural world. In today’s society, many people show concern with environmental issues, yet lack the motivation to change their behavior and act. This may be due to cultural, social, or individual attitudes and behavior, however, by looking deep into our relationship with the natural world, we can find change. Therefore, I ask everyone who has took the time to read this to look at their own love story with nature. Think of a time you have spent in the natural world that has invoked emotions. If you can’t think of one, then go create one. Develop your relationship with nature, create your own love story, and act to protect the natural world you love. (574)
· Communicating Nature (Corbett, 2006) pp. 12–26, 67–84