Replies

I posted the first several paragraphs of this essay as random Sunday morning thoughts on a thread comment.

You posted those comments to me in response to my comment about urban liberals who live in their own filth, lecturing me on the environment. Your post is dead on.

Its kind of funny. When my urban cousins come to grandma's house for holidays, they consider that a trip to the country. The problem with that is that the bulk of the trip is on the interstate and main roads to a small town surrounded by the country. A large yard with mowed grass and woods in the distance is really as close to nature as they get.

I grew up in that little town surrounded by the country and my vision of nature wasn't sterilized by a lack of experience. While I spent my life following deer paths through the woods, they were following sidewalks of Minneapolis, Kalamazoo, and Ann Arbor.

At Easter, one of my cousins commented that I was being anti social because I wandered away from the family. I realized then, that my urban family gravitated to the center of the yard and I was naturally drawn to the high weeds and brush at the edges. If it hadn't been a holiday I would have jumped the fence, crossed the field and headed for the woods.

Honestly I kind of pity them because they only get a washed out sterilized and idealized view of nature. I really wonder when the last time they were in a place where the grass was more than ankle deep. When was the last time they took a step and sank knee deep in mud of a riverbank. When was the last time they picked their way through a briar patch or walked out of the woods covered with mosquito bites.

Seems a horrible way they live.

I really wonder when the last time they were in a place where the grass was more than ankle deep. When was the last time they took a step and sank knee deep in mud of a riverbank. When was the last time they picked their way through a briar patch or walked out of the woods covered with mosquito bites.

You just described a lot of my free time :-P