thoughts: humans vs. nature
Has humanity become an unnatural beast? Do our actions and our technology defy nature?
Trees stretch skyward, contending for sunlight with their neighbors. But in spite of this competition, we still consider them nature. Every organism is manifested and maintained solely by the base urge to live. That we have used our intellect to create and develop tools to help us do so only demonstrates this.
Our ways are often un-beautiful, unfortunate, and deadly, but at root they exhibit that same desire that is the natural. It is impossible to lose or destroy nature. It's an unbelievable pity that we kill eachother, putrify our soil and air, press the delete key on entire species of organisms -- I in no way advocate violence, pollution, whatever -- but our scars will heal. And we are but a speck, and nearly every trace of our presence will be wiped clean after millions of years, and yada yada.
The struggle against mortality drives all of us [living beings] nuts. If we could listen to the trees I think we'd hear them complain in the wintertime, fear during drought, rejoice after a good watering, shout at someone snapping off a branch, and weep when a family member is cut down in a storm.
Our psychosis and turbulence is natural considering the crazy lifestyle constructs we've created. You don't see squirrels throwing themselves off highrises or yipping to themselves as they stroll down the street -- because they don't have datebooks and psychoactive chemicals and college loans. But that doesn't mean datebooks are unnatural. Only imperfect, transitory elements of the living process.
comments
I've never seen a squirrel weep.
-- devil's advocate (February 7, 2004 9:20 PM)
Maybe every organism has its own particular reactions and emotions, and its own ways of exhibiting these. Dogs bark, wail and howl, cats lash out with claws, birds sing for spring.
-- Jeff Schuler (February 7, 2004 9:35 PM)
word. very very nice.
-- dave (February 8, 2004 1:50 PM)
i was just thinking the other day about how un-natural we have become. our "innovations" are sometimes deadly and regressive.
-- mark (February 8, 2004 11:16 PM)
tell me more.
-- Jeff Schuler (February 9, 2004 12:20 AM)
I don't mean to be disagreeable but ... I do frequently hear squirrels yipping to themselves as they stroll down the street. Well, usually they sit on the bouncing end of a branch while they converse with themselves, but if I rudely dare to enter their space, disrupting the rhythm of their monologue? You should hear the scolding! A machine-gun spray of staccato clucks, tsk-tsking me right back into my house, as I mumble insincere apologies under my breath.
I say insincere because it's my food, set out for the birds, bought with my own money, that they are eating up when they dare to scold me.
Little chattering chits.
-- Kate S. (February 20, 2004 8:58 PM)
We as humans have destroyed the earth and many of of its occupants, some we dont even realize. We need them to live and when we push them all out it will be such a lonley place. . . not to mention hard to handle without nature to help sustain our life.
-- AJS (September 6, 2005 11:56 PM)