The Way of Natural History
Language: English
Pages: 204
ISBN: 1595340742
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
would not happen, since the tires were rubber, and we sat spellbound watching the lightning dance across the sky and ridgeline in the distance. On cue the rain we had hoped for in Pisinimo flooded down on us. The truck slowed immediately, and we remembered that our father had forgotten to replace his windshield wipers and the desert dust on the windshield turned to mud. The rain was cold and we climbed under the blanket and watched the bags of charcoal appear as the gray dust washed off. Even
scent of woods and river and deep, deep wildness—a wildness so primal I have no words for it. Humans have long feared what we can’t understand. Part of my work as a scientist involves trying to understand wildness. I pick up one of her front paws and hold it flat against my palm. It is bigger than my outspread hand. She takes a long time to awaken. Eventually I feel the smooth muscles over her ribs contract. One of her ears twitches, reacting to some sound audible only to her. We ease her off
smiling—there’s so much joy, so much laughter. Who among us can’t stand some of this tonic? Paying careful attention to life is, unsurprisingly, life-affirming. Natural history tends to lead to an expanded sense of a naturalist’s own humanity. Natural history is the oldest continuous human tradition. Throughout history attentiveness to nature was so completely entwined with daily life and survival that it was never considered as a practice separate from life itself. In modern life, though,
have no idea what seeing with them is like.” Meeting any wild creature face-to-face, I can feel its otherness, and recall my own animal nature. And insects are especially good for such encounters, because insects—in contrast to, for instance, polar bears or white rhinos—are often close at hand. For fifteen years I worked as the gardener for the county courthouse in the center of our town, a focal point and gathering place for the whole community. The sidewalks leading to the front
Richard Louv notes that modern society teaches young people to avoid direct experience in nature. He coined the phrase “nature deficit disorder” to describe the resulting syndrome of dysfunction. Recent behavioral research makes clear that decreases in direct interactions with nature correlate closely with more indoor sedentary recreation involving electronic media (an increase in “videophilia”). Other recent research verifies that the sense of psychological well-being among urban dwellers