This time, instead of a nature walk, I decided to be a total hypocrite and do a “nature drive” which isn’t really being with nature at all, but when I need a break, this is what I do. I choose to drive around Farmington and into Jay to see what I could “find” or just “see” in nature. I was driving down a large hill when I saw the scene that is to the right. I stopped and took a picture because I found myself becoming a little depressed. I took this drive to get away, a little break to feel better, and I find this “industry” right in the middle of the most beautiful view. I found myself wondering what Berry would think of this sight, seeing a plant, or whatever it was (I think it might have been the paper mill- making this all the more ironic with what we have read on the cutting of the trees) and finding it right in the middle of what little nature is left. I think of our industry today, our need for more, and our willingness to destroy one thing to create another, meaning cutting down nature to build a plant in the middle of it to produce more things that we as a society and economy want but don’t really need.
Berry states that “American agriculture is fantastically productive, and by now we all ought to know it. That American agriculture is also fantastically expensive is less known, but is equally undeniable, even though the costs have not yet entered into the official accounting. The costs are in loss f soil, in loss of farms and farmers, in soil and water pollution, in food pollution, in the decay of country towns and communities, and in the increasing vulnerability, of the food supply system.” (pg. 128) I realized when re-reading this section that the car I was in, the road I was on in addition with this plant that was in front of me all contributed to the loss of nature. I was smack in the middle of being upset about losing nature but contributing to it at the same time. I wonder then, with Berry’s ideas and suggestions about finding balance in nature if we will ever really find that balance, which scares me for the future. If my children’s children drive, bike, hike, walk, etc. down this road in the future what will they be looking at? Will this plant be here, will more be here, and will nature be here? I wonder how much we will “consume” before we realize it’s too late.
So this made me think about Nebraska. (this is relevant I swear) When I applied to exchange to UNK, I thought it was actually fairly similar to here, stupid I realize, but their pictures of campus included things I considered essential to where I went: trees, lawn, squirrels eating actual nuts instead of leftover cheetos, etc. Wherever I went had to have 'nature' somewhere. What I found was terrifying. Not only had we as humans destroyed whatever might've been there years ago, we replaced it with our own interpretations of what nature was and sculpted it to post-card efficiency: every direction I turned had a picture-perfect view. The landscaping was epic, but I'm fairly certain willow trees were never native to the Nebraska plains. Neither was the perfectly situated apple tree that had a perfectly positioned branch for sitting on outside the education complex. It was the ultimate bastardization of nature: we recreated it artificially in a way that was only aesthetically pleasing. Instead of a facilities department like we have here that's responsible for everything maintenance-wise, UNK had "groundskeeping laborers" that went around watering plants, trimming hedges, and sometimes catching and releasing animals at various points on campus. Why? Because none of it was naturally there and it needed constant attention to stay in the wrong environment. Creepy? Yes. Solution? Yes. The right solution? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle has a camp in the mountains of Maine. I have been going there since I was a baby. This camp is on an island in the middle of a lake and for the longest time is was the only human interruption that I could see in that area. As I got older I realized that things around the camp where changing, more camps where being build; which was fine more people to meet and fun to have. A cell tower went in on one of the mountain tops, not the most picturesque thing I had ever seen, but at least we would have service if we ever had an emergency. The one thing I could not abide by was when when summer day while visiting the camp, there was a section of a mountain that had been clear cut. A large brown rectangle now marred the otherwise spectacular view. There was nothing that could justify that happening and it just made me sad.
ReplyDeleteI bring this up because of Lizzie's factory in a field, industry is growing impossibly fast. Our country's more,more, more, attitude is starting to catch up to us, and by starting to, I mean it already has and no one seems to care. My point here is that someday in the future I would like my kids to know what nature is, and I worry that they will not. I don't have a solution, because a solution to this problem would be so radical that many people would not want it. When I read Wendell Berry I often wonder if he has a middle ground, then I wonder if his middle ground could be the start of a solution.