today my environmental ethics class walked to the urban conservation discovery center. after a few brief stories about henry david thoreau and walden pond, we spent an hour or so walking, reading, and writing in the garden. the types of grasses, plants, and trees that are native to our region. i sat by the little marsh and wrote these notes:
if glory is the weight of divine presence or essence then the air today is glorious. suffocating but glorious. every day i come to understand more and more how the nature/culture dualism is detrimental to our health. the cartesian mind/body split. but our minds are embodied. and culture is embodied from the way we sit to the way we hold writing utensils, if we hold them at all. and with the hierarchy that is so prevalent in dualistic thinking we have exalted ourselves above the earth. we have made ourselves master over it. at times we exploit it. we attempt to contain it. to craft it. and shape it in the way we see fit. in a way that alienates us from ourselves and others. maybe we are threatened by its raw power. by its seeming thoughtlessness of us and our man-made structures.
"a lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. it is the earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."
maybe in fact we are afraid to look deep into ourselves. we are afraid of what it might reveal in us. our weakness. fragility. dependence. the fact that we are in fact in control of very little. despite all of our planning. as educated and rational as it may be. we might also be afraid to face the depth of the human soul. what we are capable of becoming and creating. the beauty that we possess. the resilience of life.
what if progress was measure by the depth of character within us and not the height of our skyscrapers. or the span of our cities. but in how we treat our neighbor. because they are part of us. we shouldn't fear loneliness. we are never alone. we are surrounded by life. growth. creatures. movement. energy. we shouldn't fear loneliness but embrace solitude and community. when we take care of the land we take care of ourselves and other because we are one in the same. but we must see ourselves in the eye of the stranger and the reflection in the water. we must look deep for the interconnectedness of all things.
i don't believe our selves are out there waiting to be found. in a way i do think that bits of ourselves are scattered around time and space. but they are collected through experience. these parts of us that we discover haven't existed outside of us. but in those moments we discover something dormant within ourselves. through our experiences we create our selves. so we should live into the kind of beings we want to be and not expect to stumble across it one day down the road. we must live intentionally if we want to be fully human.
we are born and we die. and these shouldn't be done alone. despite the rugged individualism we romanticize in the west. we should be strong for one another. brave and courageous. looking at self and other in the eye searching the depths for authentic life and truth isn't easy. it involves trust. patience. compassion. vulnerability. commitment. grace. it's hard work that shouldn't be taken lightly or passively. but with expectation and joy. looking forward to what we will become together. as friends. as a community. as a city. and so on.
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