What title nine the clothing company did that I think is great is in the latest catalog. In "Too Much News," a short piece on the inside front page, founder Missy Parks sounds a call to stop being so fearful and selfish, get off our duffs and get outside that reads in part:
"I've noticed that the more news I hear the more I tend to worry. Really, it's hard to keep up with what we're supposed to be worrying about. Should we worry about the plain-vanilla flu or Bird Flu? Should we worry about a Recession, A depression, a global financial meltdown? Is there a child predator in our neighborhood or a crazed kidnapper lurking in our city? . . . .
Or perhaps, I should remind myself that statistically our children have never been safer, we have never been healthier and our nation has never been wealthier. . . . So perhaps what I should do is turn off the tv, shut down the computer . . . [and] go for a hike, buckle up, buckle up my children, eat well -- most of the time, lend a helping hand, get some sleep, express gratitude."
I've been reading Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv's book with the illuminating sub-title, Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. It's about just what it says: what it costs our children - and our culture - to be so alienated from nature. Not from expeditions to far-flung places or nature shows on television or computer, but every-day nature, the pockets of wildness right around us. What our kids are missing is time spent outside in the places where the processes of life go on in their own messy and fascinating fashion. Time to dream, to imagine, to invent, to be in the company of other species, time to simply watch life happen. Time spent in the community of nature, as Louv and may others point out, is rejuvenating, restorative, calming, healing, and inspiring.
So as Missy Parks says, let's turn off the tv and get outside - and remember what life's about!
Posts
6 comments:
Susan,
Once again, I totally agree!! I walk to the park and through the woods everyday. When I can't, I do worry more.
I see schools shortening recess and it makes me so sad! They need to get out more, not less and in nature!
One of my new years resolutions is to quit listening to all the fear related health news out there. Maybe I should add all news to my I QUIT list.
Susan
Michael,
Your review of Louv's book is interesting. I am surprised that you'd post it here as a comment rather than publish it in an academic journal, since it's clearly written for that kind of outlet. I wonder too, if you really mean to say "most species of wildlife obviously do not like having humans around, and can thrive only if we leave them alone." I suspect that the dark-eyed juncos eating organic peanut butter studded with dried nut and fruit mix from the junco feeders I hang on my back porch in the coldest parts of winter would disagree with that - no humans, no nutritious food to tide them through the worst weather. And the squash bees that snooze in the blossoms of the summer squash in my kitchen garden, waiting for their chance to mate, would miss the humans who plant the squash that are their only food and mating habitat. The mule deer would miss my garden too - where else would they be able to munch the sugar-snap peas they relish in May? I see nature as a place humans can belong, and you clearly do not. How sad.
Susan Tweit
Susan,
I read and loved your QUIT list (http://sculpturepdx.blogspot.com/). Good for you! I am finishing a memoir about finding my way back to nature and into love. It's been a long journey and I'm glad to be at a place in my life where I feel very integrated into the community of the land where I live - people and the wild species alike.
Susan T.
Susan,
Yes, I am always grateful for my childhood on the land...a more generative source than the black box and its descendants.
I'm sponsoring Eric Maisel today on Riehlife and think you might enjoy the interveiw on connection and "The Van Gough Blues."
Janet Riehl
www.riehlfe.com
Thanks for your post on Louv's book. I enjoyed it. As an science educator Ive always worked to get my 8th graders more involved in the natural world. It was after reading Saving our Children from Nature Deficit disorder I began to feel that not only do they need to understand ecosystems far away such as rain forests but they needed to understand their own communities. So we began a 'Backyard Ecology' project with student designed projects. They learned and connected with places closer to home.
Hopefully each child has an adult, and each adult has a child, with whom to stroll outdoors and just look; take the time to see what is right here, right now. To bring our own perspective into the adventure and benefit from the sharing. We are part of nature - human and otherwise.
Post a Comment