Hey Ya’ll Welcome Back!!
This week we have some exciting things to talk about. So lets get started!
This is Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. If you haven’t heard of this lake before let me help you out with the pronunciation. win-ee-puh-SAW-kee.
A few fun facts; this lake is HUGE, its shore hits seven different towns, it has over 250 islands, its shoreline is roughly 178 miles total, oh and Adam Sandler owns a house on the lake. Now that you know a little bit about the lake lets get into the real discussion.
Can you pick a photo of nature that encompasses who you are? Where is that small corner in this big world that you feel the most at peace? This is mine…
Don’t get too excited I don’t own this beautiful home, I have no idea who it belongs to. I’ve never even been inside, yet its the first thing that came to mind when thinking of a spot in nature that has my history. When I was about 12/13 my parents bought a boat, they had been saving up since before I was born it was a life long dream of theirs and they finally accomplished it. They decided to keep the boat up at beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. During the season we would go up there every weekend, and during the summer we’d spend weeks on end using that boat. Our favorite thing to do with the boat was drive it out to this small house island, anchor the boat nearby and just spend the day there. My siblings and I would jump off the boat for hours swimming around and exploring the islands nearby. My parents would sunbathe and occasionally join us in the water. It became our spot, we felt safe there, away from the rest of the world in just in our happy bubble. My dad use to joke around with us that he would buy it one day, to my young eyes that became one of my first real life dreams, to this day I still want to own this house. Unfortunately, the boat became more of an expense and we have to sell it when I was about sixteen so I haven’t been to our spot in quite some time. Yet it’s still my little corner of this big bad world that I will always carry with me.
Terry Tempest Williams who is a writer, educator, conservationist, and activist developed a sort of theory that attempts to explain the relationship between us and our earth, more specifically that piece of earth we feel most connected to, that holds most of our history. She calls this theory the Bedrock Democracy. There are many factors to this theory but she best captures its essence when she says “As the world becomes more crowded and corroded by consumption and capitalism, this landscape of minimalism will take on greater significance, reminding us through its blood red grandeur just how essential wild country is to our psychology….The hope of a bedrock democracy, standing our ground in the places we love together.” My little corner of the world does just this. It’s a place where all the ‘noise’ disappears and I can get some perspective on our crowded world. My biggest take away from this concept, is that it’s important to remember that despite all the evil our world has, nature is something that has never failed us. It’s always been there to quite literally support us, and if this is something we can remember then as a community I think we’ll be okay.
“Wildness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd. It reminds us why, in those cases in which our plans might influence many future generations, we ought to choose carefully. Looking out on a clean plank of planet earth, we can get shaken right down to the bone by the bronze-eyed possibility of lives that are not our own” (Barbara Kingsolver). I have to say that I agree with Kingsolver, who is a writer. In today’s world I think…no I know that many people become way too confident, they forget who they truly are and often times become something very unpleasant. But as Kingsolver would say “wildness put us in our place”, the enormity and beauty of nature reminds us that we are in fact a very small portion of all of existence. It shows us what’s really important and in turn makes us live better lives. For city dwellers I think it’s hard to have nature’s support because of the obvious lack of actual nature within cities. We as humans have done a really good job at creating tiny living spaces with little to no nature. I think city dwellers are still able to have a connection with our earth and their own history through it but not so much with nature in it’s purest form. I wish nature was bad a bigger priority within our culture.
That’s it for today folks. Thanks for listening.
See Ya’ll Next Time!!!
When considering place and environmentalism, I think that lakes, as well as parks, are a perfect example of an isolated location where people go to connect with the environment. When you discussed your relationship with Lake Winnipesaukee, it reminded me of my relationship with Hyde Park in London. Hyde Park is a beautiful park in the center of London. It’s so peaceful, and it juxtaposes the industry of the loud city, and the isolation and safety that is provided through nature. Barbra Kingsolver’s Knowing Our Place discusses this relationship that we have with these places by stating, “I have my ostensible claim, but the truth is, these places own me: They hold my history, my passions, and my capacity for honest work. I find I do my best thinking when I am looking out over a clean plank of planet earth.” Having this sort of relationship with the Earth feels so empowering. I would describe that feeling as knowing your place, which was obviously the theme for this week. You ended your blog by stating that you wished we cared more about nature in our culture, which is the exact reason I find myself appreciate parks, like Hyde Park, so much more. It connects two very important parts of humanity, being nature and civilization, and brings them together for a peaceful, beautiful park. Thinking about ecofeminism, I keep trying to think of ways to pull women into this analysis, but spaces like Hyde Park should be intersectional, a safe space for everyone. I am unsure of how the police system works in London, but it might not be a safe space for everyone depending on how the police are. Ecofeminism should allow for nature to be appreciated by everyone, and parks should be no different.
I love your response! To me, I think it is important to that you pointed out that humans are a small part of the world. Many people on the planet prioritize themselves over the earth. They feel that since they are the ones to speak and hold ideas, that they regulate the planet and the things around it. But, the planet is in charge. There are weatherman who try to dictate earth’s next “temperament” and are close, wrong, or a curve ball is thrown in. The earth has a say in things and is the true dictator of how we live our lives.
I think it is also very important that you brought up the wild as “putting us in our place”. We think of ourselves as dictators of the planet and our personal needs are the SO big. Yet, when we think of the big picture, there is still so much that humans have not discovered and and have no control over. Also, there is so much wild that most humans would not survive in.
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