The Nature of Things

This afternoon I took it upon myself to take a stroll in the woods of a preserve just a few minutes down the street. It is a spot I used to once frequent with my father, a man who instilled in me a great love and appreciation for all things natural. The preserve surrounds the local junior high school, swinging around, behind, and continuing behind several neighborhoods. While the recent expansion of the school and its parking lot has encroached even more upon the woods, the majority of it remains untouched, and available to any one with a pair of feet and some time to enjoy the world. It is my belief that to look for an example of the greatness of the human mind, one must look beyond skyscrapers and bridges, and instead at signs marked "Nature Preserve".

My English class has been focusing on the work of several American Transcendentalist as of late. One of them is an author I have grown to appreciate over the past several years, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson and his colleagues’ love for Nature is apparent in almost every facet of their writing. To them the world represented a physical manifestation of the Divine. In Emerson's essay aptly titled "Nature", he refers to the language in which Nature speaks to Man. Every item we can find and catalogue in our minds in the realm of Nature is some representation of things unsaid. A rose in full bloom has come to symbolize love, a stream a picture of the continuity of the human spirit and of life itself. The best example for me is the ocean. Every time I visit the beach and rest upon soft sand, I am inexplicitly drawn to that point where the sea meets the horizon. For me, this represents so dearly the eternity which gives me such joy to enter into; that vast expanse, with regions so innumerable and time so unfathomable that I dare not comprehend it. Rather I choose to sit and stare, all the while marveling at what lies before me.

While I would not agree with everything the Transcendentalists held as firm beliefs, I would never discredit their idea that the natural world is a gift from the Creator; a mirror more treasured and more clear than has ever existed. This will undoubtedly spark a debate amongst Christians and Atheists alike. If God is so loving, then how can an earthquake happen? or a hurricane? The answer to many Christians is often to compare God to a punishing parent, someone reprimanding us for lives not lived for Him. They remind us that we are living in the Garden after the fall, so we must deal with the consequences. I would beg to differ with this view. While I walked in the woods today, I was strolling through Eden, and it helped to remember that it was I who was fallen, not Eden itself. I do not believe that any kind of natural disaster has been brought upon by Man, but rather increased in intensity, and turned from a blessing into a curse. Man will build a city underwater and then complain about flooding. Man will pump endless toxins into the sweet atmosphere, and then question why a storm fueled by heat was so intense. Man will place more importance on money than safety, and be ever so quick to point the finger at God. I pray that on one grand day, we will finally accept the consequences of our own actions.

To me, Nature is a thing not so much like a Mother, but something borrowed from the Eternal. It is a gift designed to enlighten every one of our senses. For sight, we have early morning skies and pitch black nights filled with crystalline orbs. For hearing, we have the wind as it rolls through the trees in the Winter, and the birds' concertos on a Spring day. For touch, we have cool grass on our backs, and the warm prickle of a desert cactus. For smell, we have the salt of the ocean and the sweet of an oily flower. For taste, we have the bite of a green pepper and the tang of a fresh melon. Such gifts abound outside our very front doors! Yet like all things borrowed, we must learn to eventually give these gifts back. We can enjoy them while we have them, categorize them in our minds and onto paper to remember them, but we must offer them back willingly. We often forget how blessed we are when we do this dutifully.

So I feel it important to state that we must never forget that the Serpent resides not in any tree found in the natural world, but in the Tree of Knowledge. When we begin to feel as if Nature is ours to control and dominant for no other means that our own wealth and greed, we are committing a most terrible offense to God. This is an offense I will not claim immunity from, for every time I pass a pond and see merely a pond I am just as guilty. Let us remember that which transcends all human thought and progress. For Nature began with one seed, and will exist in its virginal beauty until the last tree is thrown into the Fire. Let us cling to that which reminds of our destiny, and be thankful always for He who forged it.