A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

It seems that one begins a walk full of energy and curiosity, but as the road unfolds and feet begin to tire, the intensity wanes and one becomes despondent. Despite my disinterest in football, I found myself marching to the quarter with the rest of the city when the Saints won Sunday night. The entire night was filled with the sounds of constant honking, chanting, screaming and laughter. I was so amazed at a stupid football game's ability to unite a jaded city that I walked five miles home at 2am.

It seems that John Muir started his thousand mile walk with vibrant intensity just as I had. He was temporarily blinded in an industrial accident and was compelled to go out into the plants he studied in books, to experience them and be with them. He quit his job and societal obligations, just as I decided to not do my homework, and set out alone to follow his vocation. I, however, did not go alone as Muir had. Herein lies the difference of Muir and I's journey, besides the fact that his was 1,000 miles and mine 5: Muir went out to explore what exists without man and I went to explore how men come together. What Muir discovered though, was that nature exists with man just as man exists within nature. Rather than clinging to anger or frustration that man must always abuse nature, Muir saw that nature is enhanced by man.

Muir's walk did not tire him when he reached the subtropics. He caught fever and illness, yet his records of the walk only became clearer in the latter half of his diary:

When a page is written over but once it may be easily read; but if it be written over and over with characters of every size and style, it soon becomes unreadable, although not a single confused meaningless mark or thought may occur among all the written characters to mar its perfection. Our limited powers are similarly perplexed and overtaxed in reading the inexhaustible pages of nature, for they are written over and over uncountable times, written in characters of every size and color, sentences composed of sentences, every part of a character a sentence. There is not a fragment in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself. All together form the one grand palimpsest of the world.

It is in this paragraph that Muir's thesis lies: All of the aspects of nature form "one grand palimpsest of the world," or one shape with layers of view points. These layers create different readings, different interpretations despite the fact that it is unchanging.

It was also near the end of my walk where I began contemplating how many hours I could sleep and finish my homework. But, then I realized how much I would miss this city when I leave. I realized in the darkened streets that even in the silence of the early morning, this city remains alive. But, all in all, every place appears different. Yet, if we were to explore and experience more of the world, we would begin to see that we all share the same sky as Muir points out. Even when the sky is different or the winds change their language, it is merely layer of words. Thus, all the different cities, ecosystems and biomes are different words, different layers overlapping and entwining over one earth. Our perspective of how to read it, how to see the earth, will change depending on where we are peering in from.

New Orleans has a certain magic to it that I do think I will miss despite my plans to run away and teach ESL in Europe. I will, however, find something written in another language, another impassioned aspect of a community no matter where I go because there are no fragments in nature; there are only repeating patterns.

The Ethics of Animal Captivity

A long debated argument within the realm of animal ethics is that of captivity in zoos. It feels unethical to lock creatures built for open fields within tiny manmade landscapes. Yet, reducing these animals to these exhibits removes them from predators, habitat degradation, scarce resources and illegal poaching. Animals in captivity are given the life span to be able to die from old age, a feat that is rarely met in nature due to natural and unnatural constraints of the wild.

Many people are saddened by the animals’ immobility despite their large bodies. Yet, these animals are not particularly active in the wild. Tigers and lions are generally as lazy as your common housecat, though the larger cats must engage a little more effort in getting their dinner beyond eating out of a bowl. If anything, we should blame our culture for depicting lions as theatrical predators just as we depict sharks and snakes as being more aggressive than they actually are. The primate exhibit at a zoo exemplifies seemingly active creatures being active in captivity. Because these animals are naturally social, they are often more exciting to see at the zoo than large cats because they enjoy the attention.

Volunteering at the aquarium, I find that the sacrifices involved in maintaining an aquarium are worth its ability to educate and fascinate visitors. Petting a stingray, despite the unnerving name, engages visitors into investing emotions with animals they do not see on a daily basis. I love talking with nervous children about how the sandtiger shark who bears nasty teeth is highly unaggressive and how King Mydas the sea turtle survived Katrina. Learning about these creatures and ecosystems in this way helps strengthen the public’s awareness of ecological necessities and conflicts.

I visited the zoo on the MLK holiday to celebrate my birthday and enjoy my Audubon volunteer card that grants me free admissions to different facilities. Most of the animals I saw seemed content basking sleepily in the sun, as they had attention, food, and shelter. Yet, I found myself staring face to face with a gorilla named Casey. He was the only animal I saw who genuinely looked discontent with his predicament. While I was watching him, a young boy was screeching, “Hi MONKEY!” over and over again, and various parental figures were saying various cutesy phrases such as “Monkey want a banana?” At first I thought it was the ape’s higher mental capacities that enabled him to recognize his own captivity and be mournful of his predicament, yet other primates we as humans are more closely related to did not share the same depression I saw in Casey.

Even when I moved on to see the juvenile giraffe and the zebras, I still had the odd feeling of a despondent returned stare from a gorilla in my mind. I think that as I continue to read for this course (Literature of Nature), I will return to visit Casey and determine why it is he was the only animal I saw who was unhappy at the zoo.

The First

This blog has been created to serve as a medium of contemplations on nature, specifically literature that discusses nature and the thoughts of others on an interrelated system or force no one will ever be able to understand.

I suppose a proper subject for a first post in an independent study course is some means of a rumination on what I hope to gain from these three credit hours.

I find myself constantly thinking, constantly wondering and attempting to seek understanding with that which happens around and without me. With volunteering at the Aquarium, canoeing in the beautiful and strange swamps around New Orleans, weekly bike rides through Audubon park, constantly reading and writing, traveling to various countries of curious ecosystems and simply being in love with the world, I don't always know how to process such senses and perceptions. By reading how others have responded to the presence of nature and how they apply such reactions into human culture, I hope to not only gain insight into the literature of nature, but to learn how to better express my own contemplations.

This blog, I hope, will be a projection of the thoughts I have while reading for the course and reactions to daily experiences with nature through unexpected texts.

I am enclosing my first post with a picture I took while serving as a camp counselor at Camp Orkila on Orcas Island, Washington. It features two counselors I worked with, both from the United Kingdom, simply enjoying the sunshine and laying in the field beside the cabin. Perhaps this blog will take my experiences and translate them into complete thoughts like this photo.