The Soothing Mellowness of Nature

The Soothing Mellowness of Nature

It is as hard to communicate via words about nature just as it is to use words about a feeling like love. And like every other aspect of human essence, there is tremendous difference how either nature or love is experienced by diverse human beings. 

After a week long heat spell I resumed my 5-7 mile wanderings in nature/city environments. It was late afternoon when I took a walk in Morton Arboretum. It is not real forest which would be dense and tangled up with a bit of everything. But in an arboretum there are all kinds of trees and bushes arranged to make everything look so perfect. The sun went down before I got back to my car so I sat on a bench overlooking this man made lake, gazed up at the sky, and listened to the deafening silence while absorbing the daylight giving way to night.  I love these kind of moments because it enables me to forget about the small stuff which clutters up our daily thoughts. We can realize, surrounded by nature, that, in the end, it’s all small stuff. 

Our earth has been around for billions of years, and I myself less than a century. I wondered what the place looked like several hundred years ago when the Indians inhabited the same area. I wondered about how the place looked before humans were even on the planet. And I always wonder what I should really think about life and the planet. We don’t really get factual knowledge from thinking about nature, we get feelings. We are all presently part of the evolutionary process, but with such an insignificant impact on the big picture, that any pompous conceptions we have of ourselves dissipates rather quickly. I wonder what the planet and this arboretum will look like 300 yrs from now? I wonder about the 75 million homeless humans living in cramped filthy tent camps with food we wouldn’t even feed to our pets. I wonder how my life would have been had I been born and raised in a ghetto. It seems every government is responsible for all the communities within its borders. If so, we have surely been irresponsible. Maybe indifferent and self serving are better terms.

Evolution has been a vicious process. There is more sadness than happiness in human societies. It is what it is, and while I see the progress in the evolutionary process, there is no way to shed the sorrow felt for the losers, or the temporary status of every single member of every species around. 98% of all species that ever existed are now extinct, let alone every member of these species from the past. So many times have I looked in the eyes of some less fortunate young person and seen the forlorn hopelessness in their eyes. So many times have I watched the the last flicker of life fade from the eyes of a beloved pet being put down in a veterinary office. Too many times we all see on our media gadgets the endless tears from someone who has been part of some unspeakable tragedy. Too many times most of us must deal with a loss so wrenching to our soul that total recovery is impossible. We all, if we live any length of time, die slowly by a thousand cuts. With each loss, part of us is lost too. All loss is tragic, including loss by changing times. Over time, what once was a good fit is either now a less perfect fit, or no longer a meaningful part of our lives. Yes, we can never go home again. These are the kind of thoughts, amongst others, which alone in nature, cause us to better understand the reality of the world we experience for such a brief period of time.

It is nature which helped me understand that God (however defined) cannot be our personal friend, or willing to alter His/Her/Its laws which govern the evolutionary process—to help any member of any species. At first, it seemed well, then we all are on our own, and should just seek as much pleasure from life as we can before we die as surely we will. But over time I began to realize that pleasure is the wrong word as pleasure can be brief and often become addictive or compulsive——neither of which can lead to personal contentment—and personal contentment is about all we can hope to achieve in our lifetime. Once we understand this, things get a bit clearer, and a bit fairer. 

Survival of the fittest is a concept that works just fine in the lower rungs of the genetic ladder. Only the human species has the inherent mental capacity to more fully comprehend the significance of events in our lives. Our fear of death, for example, is so much more threatening to us than to other species. But even more significant is our power to change our environment so that we can live a better live. Other species, if they can, move to find a better environment. The advanced power of reasoning possessed by humans creates emotional states that have far more depth than those of other species. No other species have a chance against us if we decide they are in the way. As human overpopulation continues to increase at an exponential rate, we are now experiencing the 6th period in evolution of massive species extinction. All the earlier periods of mass species extinction were created by natural environmental events. This time it is being caused by human activities. 

Does God care at all about individual suffering? Clearly God is not saving any particular religious group from life’s landmines. For example, there is no identifiable group who die less from cancer except those who do not receive good health care. There is no identifiable group which has less deaths from automobile accidents except those who cannot afford a car. And so it goes, God is not saving more of any group regarding all the things for which people tend to pray. Maybe God just doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the bad things which can happen. And, if God would really answer the prayer of someone to pass a test, win a contest, etc. while ignoring the fate of 75 million homeless refugees, what kind of God is this? But we overlook what should be more obvious—namely, what the human species has received via the laws which govern the evolutionary process, is to collectively help those less fortunate. We have a choice——concentrate on our own needs or spend the same amount of time collectively helping those less fortunate. This is called the Golden Rule and is the only globally recognized ethical principle. Interestingly enough, there is no other way to achieve personal contentment except through the Golden Rule. The truth is that he/she who gives receives as much personal contentment as those who receive the help. It is not coincidence that those nations who provide good health care, good schools, good teachers, good job opportunities, good wages, good benefits, good vacation time, etc to all citizens have the highest citizen happiness index compared to those countries which cherish individual responsibility in these areas.