Over the Labor Day weekend my family and I gathered to camp out and celebrate my grandmother’s 90th birthday on land we own in Waterford. The land is on what some might call a small mountain; others might label a hill leading to the forest. The open field that we camp out on overlooks neighboring mountains such as Shawnee Peak and we visit the land in all seasons of the year to hike, camp, hunt, and snowshoe. The land is dubbed The South Side, as it is literally the southern part of the land my grandmother grew up on. It’s a peaceful place to unwind without the disturbances of “regular” life and for the brief time I get to spend there on different occasions, I embrace the fresh air wholeheartedly.
Walking around the property, Emerson’s words filtered in and out of my thoughts. I find it interesting that he suggests nature as being fluid and that everything is interrelated. He writes about seeking knowledge through the teachings of nature and muses, “It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect—What is truth? And of the affections—What is good? By yielding itself passive to the educated Will. Then shall come to pass what my poet said: ‘Nature is not fixed but fluid. Spirit alters moulds, makes it.” (Emerson, 39) Fluidity seems like an appropriate word to associate with nature, as it is constantly in flux, changing. Furthermore, those changes affect all beings—living and nonliving.
Emerson also explains that this fluidity overlaps across time and space. He connects the past to present and future, explaining, “All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house heave an earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobbler’s trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar’s garret. Yet line for line and point for point your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names.” (Emerson, 39) This suggests that we, the people of the current time in 2010, have the same capacities as all who came before us, and share a similar space on Earth. This is an important concept for individuals as well as societies to realize and I think it’s one that has not been fully understood by the majority of humans. We are a world that loves to classify things. We classify people and animals and plants. Politics are red and blue or black and white. Religions compete against one another. Even the “rights” movements have all be susceptible to divisions: feminist rights, civil rights, gay rights, land rights, indigenous peoples rights. Instead of looking at the big picture in what makes us connected, as Emerson acknowledges, we focus on the differences.
This is also something that applies directly with the scientific community in that scientists often dissect issues into specific areas of specialization, rather than incorporating the larger concepts into their methodology. David Suzuki writes about these same ideas in his book The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature. Like Emerson, he discusses the parts verses the whole, identifying a key term called worldview. A worldview, Suzuki states, is “a story whose subject for each group is the world and everything in it, a world in which human beings are deeply and inextricably immersed. Each worldview was tied to a unique locale and peopled with spirits and gods. At the centre of the story stood the people who had shaped it to make sense of their world. Their narrative provided answers to those age-old questions: Who are we? How did we get here? What does it all mean? Every worldview describes a universe in which everything is connected with everything else. Stars, clouds, forests, oceans and human beings are interconnected components of a single system in which nothing can exist in isolation.” (Suzuki, 12) I believe that Emerson rattles off his worldview throughout his essay on nature, which is dense and complex in many places, but which overall basically asserts that the spirit of things flows through all creatures and land forms, and humans use nature to make sense of the world through literary metaphors, allegories, and allusions. We personify nature and it personifies us.
So, while walking along the land that my grandmother grew up on, I immersed myself in that feeling of a place. I listened to her stories of living on the farm and working as hired help at the age of fourteen and then going on to pursue a career in nursing. I think about my father who grew up in South Portland but frequented the farm, working during the summers in Waterford. I think about myself, retreating to the comfort of The South Side, accompanied by a good book, a warm fire, and close family. And I think about Emerson and Suzuki. We are all connected, through time and space. It’s difficult to find land that has been in one family for multiple generations in this day and age, especially, I’ve noticed, in southern Maine. So, I’m grateful for this piece of history, this connection to where it is that I come from.
Wow! That is really awesome that your family has such a connection to the land. I am glad that you have been able to continue that connection down through the generations by taking trips there as a family. I think that in that way there is another connection to the Emerson quote, “All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house heaven on earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobbler’s trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar’s garret. Yet line for line and point for point your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names” (Emerson, 39). I agree that he is talking about a shared capacity but I think he is also taking about the way humans inherit the Earth. We pass the planet onto to the next generation much in the same way that your family has passed down the South Side although it often changes names. It is owned by the next generation as much as it was the last and it can be just as great if only the next generation chooses to make it so. There is fluidity in this passing on though; much like there is in the seasons or in the cycle of life. This leads back to the passage you quoted earlier, “Nature is not fixed but fluid. Spirit alters moulds, makes it” (Emerson, 39). Human life is also fluid, it moves through cycles much like nature does and much like nature Spirit moulds it. The Spirit of the next generation moulds the land they inherited as well as the ideas that have passed on into something new and in this way, although there is stability in that all things eventually come full circle they are different in every circle. I liked that you included your family story here. For me, it added another dimension that I hadn’t thought about before. Thanks!
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