The New Wave Nature Walk

Remember (or take my word for it) the “nature walk” that you used to take in elementary school? It was supposed to help you connect and appreciate nature.

I supposed that they still do formal nature walks today but I’m not sure.

I ran into someone this week who is teaching a college level extension course on Global Warming. He related to me how he was having a problem getting the students to have and appreciate some connection to the earth. Things like global warming and rising ocean levels are important, he said, but from a student’s point of view, they are having a hard time bringing these concepts down to something that effects them every day — something that is “in their face” so to speak.

His reasoning (which I believe is sound) for pursuing this matter is his belief that if we first grow to appreciate nature and creation and don’t take it for granted, the act of caring for it will follow. The opposite is also true — we tend to ignore that which we don’t care about. The challenge that this teacher is having is how to get his students to be appreciative; especially in a world where they have lived most of their lives disconnected from the land and nature itself.

I wrote a piece some time ago about the issue of really how far most American society is from the the land around us. In it, I said that we in the “two-thirds” world, unlike most of the “one-third” world, live in a society where, as part of our daily lives, we are not directly dependent on the condition of the land and it’s ability to produce food and shelter for us.

Sadly, this is the situation that most of his students are in. They don’t know or really have deep feelings for where the food they eat comes from or how the condition of the land around them or the systems we call ‘nature’ effects their daily lives. Most likely, they need some kind of a nature walk.

I suggested something to him to at least partially remedy this. I suggested that, as part of his class on Ecology and Global Warming, that he require his students to take a “new wave nature walk” by experiencing the process of growing some of their own food — either in their own garden, in a community garden or at least in a pot on the balcony of their apartment.

I suggested this based on the fact that this year, I decided to have a garden — simply for the fact that I wanted to experience the miracle of something growing.

At my house, we started out with a small raised plot that we had to fill with soil we hauled from the back of the yard. We concentrated on easy to grow crops (lettuce, radishes, carrots, beans and, of course tomatoes and zucchini) so that we could hopefully, experience at least some small amount of success. The point was not to feed ourselves but to experience and appreciate what it might be like if we had to grow everything we ate.

The thing about my garden experience is that we got very involved (both physically and dare I say emotionally) in what we were doing. It’s was like having children or having a pet and really caring about it’s well being. Is there enough water? How are the radishes doing? How come the carrots aren’t big enough? Did you pick the lettuce this morning?

The real joy that we got one night was when we realized that everything we were eating for our dinner came from our garden. We planted it, watered it and worried about it. Much different than the packaged, neutral, disconnected produce we got from the grocery store.

Anyone who goes through the process of gardening and growing food, I believe, will eventually come to realize that growing something from a seed is truly a miracle. How is it that a lowly seed – something small and dead in appearance that has been in an envelope on a store shelf – can produce something not only that you can eat but is beautiful? And what a miracle it is that each of those things that you grow has, built into it, the capability to carry on and make many, many more of it’s own kind. (Where else in today’s gadget-heavy society can you find something that you pay for once and will produce more of it’s own kind forever and ever?)

My very small experience with a garden really went a long way in helping me appreciate and love the gift we are given in dirt, soil and seeds. I have come to believe that this gift is not something to be taken lightly or treated with disdain. It is probably not something to be grown, institutionalized and commercialized over thousands of acres of corn and monoculture. What we grow and the appreciation for this gift is what life is all about and it’s why we can sit down to a meal which nourishes us.

It remains to be seen if the professor will be able to carry off this garden project. I hope so. Because, I am convinced that at the very least, growing your own food in your small garden is a simple, practical way to appreciate the enormity of the problem we face in nursing our environment and our land back to health.

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