People have forgotten what Nature is

When you think of Nature, what do you picture? Majestic, scenic vistas from mountain tops? Crystal blue glaciers? Amazonian rain forests?

These things are all part of Nature, but what about the little woods at the end of your street? What about the river winding through your city? What about the little creek a couple blocks over? Did you picture those?

TV Nature documentaries and environmental organization fundraising appeals have programmed Americans to think of Nature as beautiful, awe-inspiring, and...far away. The mountains, glaciers and rain forests are beautiful indeed, and I'm not saying there shouldn't be documentaries about them. They're very interesting places. And I don't want to see them harmed.

For most of us though, these are very far away places that we will never go to. The problem is a lot of people think those places are Nature. Nature has been defined for them as beautiful, awe-inspiring, far away places they will never go to. That's very sad and potentially very dangerous.

People have become disconnected from Nature. They don't realize it's all around them. They think since it's a place they'll never go to, there isn't much of an incentive to care about it. They don't care about the air they breathe or the water they drink?

People spend so little time outside now, they don't even know what it looks like. I was floored when my husband told me a large number of his introductory astronomy students had never seen the moon during the daytime and didn't actually know that it was possible to do so. I could believe that there might be one or two rather odd students who were that bizarre, but he assured me that there had indeed been several. Had these people never looked up?! It seemed like a plot device from a science fiction movie, a test to sort out the aliens from the human beings. These are the people who look like human beings and act like human beings, but they're obviously impostors! They haven't been here on Earth long enough to know you can see the moon during the daytime! Grab them! Except these were people who had been on Earth for at least 18 years; they had just never bothered to look up. It boggles my mind.

I wouldn't be so surprised by people who had never seen the night sky, given our culture of fear. People are afraid to go out at night, and there's so much light pollution because of that fear, it's pretty hard to see anything in some areas anyway. But I'm talking about broad daylight! Don't people spend any time outside at all?

Apparently for some people, it's very little. They weren't allowed to walk or cycle to school. They were probably driven to school, or if they took a bus, they were driven to the bus stop. So they walked from the car or bus to the school entrance. At home there was probably an attached garage, so they didn't even go outside when walking from the car to the house.

When they got older and started driving and working, they walked from the car to the workplace entrance. And whenever they went shopping, whether for necessity or recreation, they would walk from the car to the store or mall entrance. Did these people never play outside as children? Do they not go for walks as adults? Have they never ridden bikes? Have these brief trips from car to building entrance really been the only time they've ever spent outside? Still, over the course of at least 18 years, I would think that at least once, they would have happened to notice the moon in the daytime sky. I mean, it's right there. You'd have to be looking at the right direction at the right time, but it's the moon. It's big. How could you miss it? With 18 years to have a chance to see it, how could you be that oblivious?

Sadly, a lot of people do only walk from their cars to building entrances. As a result, they have no clue how to dress for the weather. I'm amazed by the number of people I see walking outside when it's 5°F with nothing on their heads. Now, that's fine if you're walking half a block. But I see people walking hunched up, looking like they're freezing, and I can tell they've been walking a lot farther than that. What's really amazing is so many of these people are wearing coats with hoods on them, but they don't put the hoods on. Um...hello? I don't know if they just forget that they have a hood, or if they think it's just decorative and don't understand that it's a kind of hat that's conveniently attached or if they're just stupid. I mentioned this phenomenon to a coworker and she said, "They probably don't want to mess up their hair." Oh, right. Much better to get frostbitten ears. That's an attractive look. Can't they just comb their hair when they get to work? I saw a woman recently when it was 5°F who had a hood, wasn't wearing it, was walking hunched over looking like she was freezing, and was holding her mittened hands up to her ears to try to keep them warm. Sigh.

This is Michigan. It gets cold in winter here. So dress for the cold. That's not so hard to figure out. If you dress appropriately, you'll be comfortable when you're outside. You can even enjoy spending time outside. It's good for you. You need it.

People need to spend time in Nature. If you think of Nature as some far away place you'll never go to, you'll make no effort to spend any time in Nature. But look around you. Even if you live in a city, there are patches of Nature here and there. There may be parks with natural areas. There may be small undeveloped areas with woods where you'll find native wildflowers in spring. There may be creeks that form natural boundary lines where you'll find turtles and frogs and small fish. Look around. Explore. Take walks.

Look in your own back yard. Even if it isn't a natural area, you can garden to make it friendly to wildlife. Use lots of native plants and be sure to provide the things wildlife need: food, water, cover from predators, and places they can raise their young. See my gardening page for more information. You won't be able to make your yard into a true natural area if it isn't already one; only a time machine could do that. But you can transform it into an area that's much more naturalistic than the typical American yard, which offers very little to wildlife. And spending hours playing in the dirt will reconnect you with the Earth and nourish your soul, and you will start to see how things are connected, and see that it matters. You'll enjoy being outside, and you won't want to come in. You'll see how things change through the seasons and how things are related to one another. You'll see different animals come and go and learn what they like to eat and how they behave.

You'll begin to see that even if your yard wasn't naturally arranged this way, even if Nature didn't put these plants here just so, the animals don't know that. The animals who come to your yard are part of Nature. You've got Nature in your yard.

Spend time outside. Even if you don't plant a garden, just spend time outside. Go for walks. Ride your bike to work. Sit and stare at the river for 20 minutes every day. Something. Just get out there and experience the outdoors. Feel the wind on your face. Look at the moon in the sky. Catch snowflakes on your tongue. There's a world out there! You need to feel a connection to it for your own mental health and for everyone's physical health.