I recently renewed contact with a long-lost friend who said “What you do [for a living] sounds so interesting. Getting out there with nature.”
It was a kind, thoughtful comment. But I thought, how funny.
Getting “out there” with nature.
As if I and nature were not one in the same, were not cut from the same cloth. As if nature was all that stuff happening outside my back door and I was necessarily separate from it.
As if there was ever an option to live my life insulated from what is “out there.” Worse, as if that world outside the window was unknowable. Dangerous. Too much to absorb.
Getting out there with nature.
As if it so far way.
My poor friend. I’m sure she enjoys walks in the park and sitting by a glassy lake sipping merlot, as I do. I bet she enjoys bird song and warm winds.
But I couldn’t help but wonder: nature deficit disorder?
Nature deficit disorder is a term coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods. It refers to the disturbing trend that children spend less time outdoors, resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems and, I’ll add, spiritual emptiness.
Of course, plenty of adults suffer from this malady and are unwittingly passing this onto their children.
Last year, I led a ‘nature walk’ of 22 second-graders (6-7 yr old) across the schoolyard and into a narrow thicket of trees. We walked an asphalt pathway for a hundred yards then sat by a creek and ate a snack. Along the way, I asked the kids to use their five senses to detect what was around them. What did they smell? Touch? Hear? See? We even tasted a blade of grass.
A nature walk in the woods.
When I could get the young whippersnappers to sit still and listen (ha!), we listened for birdsong. We heard robins, chickadees, nuthatches…a distant crow.
But after we entered the narrow line of trees with a perfectly groomed path, I was sad when one child grew increasingly nervous and asked, “Are there bears in here?”
I realize kids don’t yet have perspective on the natural world, but it occurred to me this MUST be the first time this child has ever been in the woods near his hometown. He must have absorbed the fears of his parents, who probably knew so little about the outdoors that they were swayed by tales of deadly snakes, poisonous plants, and giant bears (in this isolated patch of woods in upstate NY). Perhaps they weren’t curious enough to separate fact from fiction in their nearby environment.
I could hear the parent saying “Junior, stay away from those bushes. Don’t touch that frog. Stay out of the water. Stop running. Stay close. Get in the car, we’re driving.”
Perhaps this is the same type of parent who, when taking their kids to the natural history museum, will shrug and murmur “I don’t know” when their kid asks them about an exhibit, WHEN THE SIGN EXPLAINING THE WHOLE THING STARES THEM IN THE FACE!
The Visitor Information Center, Adirondacks, NY
I don’t mean to rant. Okay, yes, I do. It’s my blog and I’ll rant if I want to. I fully realize that nature appreciation is considered a privilege for those who have enough food to eat and new shoes when the old ones wear out.
But even among these work-a-day folks around me, there’s plenty who are so disconnected from the outdoors that they think of me as an oddball curiosity for “getting out THERE with nature.”
I wish more of them would join me! So they can feel what it’s like to observe, enjoy, interact with, and feel they can understand, if they tried, Mother Nature.
Birders, nature enthusiasts, readers of this blog: I propose that we collaborate on an important mission: spread the accessibility of nature. Make it knowable to someone who hasn’t yet discovered it. Vow to take as many non-naturey friends into the out-of-doors as possible this year. Show them what you see and hear, help mend that disconnect, and we will ALL meet with success in uncommon hours.
If you take me up on the challenge, come back and leave me a comment or send an email. I’d love to hear how it went.
Check out my next post about what happens when you let kids explore wild places…
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Is this directed at anyone in particular? I like Merlot.
I assure you that was purely coincidental…
However, I do want to live up to our plan to take Deb bird watching this spring. Let’s do it!
Well, I did try to take June out canoeing at Mendon Ponds and she had a panic attack. Ever since we’ve stuck to drinking Merlot on her backyard deck as the sun sets. You can imagine then that I wasn’t so sure how her kids would do. Two summers ago, though, I took June’s daughter canoeing on Canadice Lake. For the first 20 minutes, her daughter’s two most repeated comments were “I’m tired” and “How much longer”, but then that magic that you just can’t explain to people who don’t go outside, took over. A King Fisher dive bombed into the lake and a Heron flew off. Suddenly, it was “Wow, this is fun” and “when can we go again”?
We have a brilliant guy in the UK called David Lindo – aka The Urban Birder. He has a site on blogger and his own website. Basically, he enthuses people about the nature on their doorstep.
It resonates with me because my passion for natural history did not begin with trips to “the wild” but rather with what was there and accessible on, or near, our housing estate.
I fell under the spell of Bullfinches, Sparrowhawks, Tadpoles, Bindweed, Sticklebacks, and Rowans right outside the front door.
You know what? I still am.
May your quest gather great momentum!