By Staff
Letter to the Editor
Wind, rain, and snow…these mysterious and beautiful events of the natural world are often taken for granted, and not respected as intricate and transcendental phenomena.
At times our biological world isn't revered; but is degraded by man. To live in harmony and unity with all life is somehow considered off balanced or uncompromising. Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, D.H. Lawrence, Walter Anderson, Rachael Carson…to name a few…were considered out of touch, but actually showed an enormous understanding of nature.
Nature is too subdued and conquered; not preserved and protected; there are many myths that lead to this philosophy; many of our institutions have propagated these beliefs; the church, industry and the family.
The church with its supernatural core, has from its inception considered the physical or natural as shallow and pagan. It has tried to transcend the world of life with the supernatural. These days there is very little said in the church about environmental issues that are pressing so critically on humankind.
Big business promotes the economy above our basic needs (air, water, food) and compromises for the sake of a 'quick buck." Regulations are lackadaisically enforced; e.g. the Alaskan oil spills.
The family insulates itself from the natural elements … with superficial lighting, artificial structures, and opts for convenience of fast foods. And fear is instilled of wild plants and animals, e.g. snakes, spiders, wild berries, and wolves.
Instead of living in harmony with the primeval and creative sources that have evolved from the force of an ineffable Universe, we are often in binary mode of. Them vs. us, men vs. women, education vs. mechanical, church vs. pagan, father vs. mother, homosexual vs. heterosexual…. as if they have no relationship and are separate.
E.O. Wilson with his concept of consilience, proposes that we can start to save biological life of all kind, with the integration of all academic disciplines: math, science, art, music, and language, which are necessary for a full understanding of our interconnectedness to all species. Life, as we know it, is not compartmentalized.
Robert W. Mays
Atmore, Ala.