A Walk in the Woods
Yesterday was a beautiful day in north Florida and I decided to go for a walk in a nature preserve near Gainesville. It was a lovely walk and I encountered no one until-I first heard the children and then, sure enough, a whole family of what I have long ago learned to recognize “as those who do not know how to behave in nature” appeared coming toward me on the trail. The two miniature ones were yelling and screaming while hitting everything in view with sticks and pretending to kill something. The first to reach me was Mamma, who asked if I had “seen anything interesting in there” while pointing at a pretty wetland by the trail. I replied that it was a lovely view resulting in a disgusted look on her face that told me that “interesting” to her meant animals, specifically ones that could be shot and eaten. I replied that I had seen a few birds to which she looked more disgusted and continued on down the trail. She had quickly decided what I was and did not care for it. I have been around (raised by) people like this my whole life and know how they think . Nature to them means something to be killed and eaten or hung on the wall. In this area gator, squirrel, deer or maybe bear would have been acceptable replies to her question. Next to pass in the familial troop was the teenage female who looked sort of embarrassed, said nothing and looked as if she wished to be anywhere else. Last in line was Poppa who seemed very bored and when I asked how he was doing today, he looked frustrated and replied “makin it” without further comment. Clearly these individuals felt no connection to the beauty and silence of the surroundings and were happy to disrupt other people’s experience as well.
This little episode got me to thinking that people of this sort are a microcosm of the anti-environmental attitudes permeating the right-wing mentality throughout this country and as such have no interest in or knowledge of environmental protection, climate change and certainly not enjoying nature for it’s own sake. I wish I knew a solution to this situation, but I do not.
