Walks, Rain, And Emerson

Someday I hope to be as swept away by something as Emerson is about nature. In reading his essay, I was genuinely surprised that there were not more exclamation points at the ends of his sentences. Sadly, my post will not be as passionate.

I would first like to say that I like the rain- it often suits my moods. I like being prepared for rain, with my cute pink puddle jumpers and umbrella. During my walk, I found myself wondering why I had not taken Meteorology as a science when suddenly I was caught in the middle of a deluge of rain, sans umbrella or rain boots. Predicting the weather would have been useful there; I mean in Emerson’s day, I might have gotten a chill and died! Thankfully, I don’t seem to have a chill. Anyway, the whole experience made me think about the unpredictability of nature. When I left my room the sun was out and the world was happy. On the green, people were playing Frisbee, and I had no qualms about wandering away from campus. As I walked by the Sandy the skies darkened and then opened up. I was annoyed by this; in fact, I almost broke my fifteen minute vow of silence with a few well chosen expletives.

I refrained, because my walk made me think of Emerson. He said, “In the woods we return to reason and faith.” Well, I reasoned that the sun in the sky meant no rain, and I had the faith to walk without rain gear. It turns out perhaps Emerson is a little off his mark. I know that he had a different meaning behind his words, as they were not meant literally, but in a religious sense. He does go on to say that reason “is not mine, or thine, but we are its.” Emerson means God is reason- he built nature, and thus we must have faith in it. I am not sure that I found God in the woods, but after my initial gripe about the rain I was able to enjoy it. I might even say that I was “refreshed” in some way. I was, in that moment, able to get away from the “too muchness” that Cronon writes about in his essay.

Emerson writes about nature in such away that he is able to make the wildness of the landscape Godliness. Christianity brings some order to a seeming unpredictable place. He acknowledges that “an occult relation between man and vegetable,” perhaps a brief shout-out to paganism, but he points back to a “higher power” as the cause for this phenomenon.

Emerson has such blind faith in nature and God that he was compelled to write this testament. I know that I will never feel the same passion that Emerson feels about nature, but I admire his gumption. His life had meaning and he found it in nature, his tangible expression of God.