Week 3

Week Three, 9/5

           

This was my first time visiting the Botanic Gardens, even though I’ve been in Fort Worth for the past three years. I had heard so much about it, so I was excited for the experience. I expected to see flowers everywhere, but I didn’t notice any at all. Then again, we only stayed in one part of the garden, so maybe next time I’ll get to explore a little more. I love looking at flowers, especially when there’s a huge variety packed into a small area. It gives me a feeling of freedom, and it reminds me of when I lived in Austria at a young age. There is a place in Vienna called Donaupark, and my favorite spot was the little café completely surrounded by flowers.

            We sat in the shade for class under a large tree. The weather was not too bad, around 85 degrees (it could have been worse). Flies were constantly attacking me during our discussion, distracting me from the conversation and making me look like I was having mini seizures. I reminisced about the time I went to the park with my friend one day in a similar setting. He was writing in a notebook, describing what he saw as we sat under the tree and looked up. He read his journaling out loud to me and I was taken aback at how descriptive his language was. He wrote in a way that if you were not present, you would know exactly what he was looking out, both physically and emotionally. This related to Lewis’s journals as  he explored for Thomas Jefferson. His level of detail was so precise that I could picture myself there with him, experiencing life with him. Just looking at nature, I don’t think I could describe it as well as most nature writers do. I look at nature from the surface, seeing everything as it is. I see a tree as a tree, as opposed to something that bears and sustains life, for humans and animals, alike. I found the focus on bears rather fascinating because this is not a topic that I would necesssarily hone in on while discussing nature. This just shows how many things we take for granted today. Many of the animals we have today in nature are often overlooked as just scary and wild, when there’s more to them like their distinct mannerims and often, their relatability to humans. We often forget that what is normal and commonplace today has not always been normal for those in the past.

            I thought the reading we had about the wilderness was somewhat peculiar. I’ve always been told that the wilderness is dangerous, but I used to enjoy it as a kid. I used to venture out with my friends in pursuit of new discoveries. Bears didn’t scare me. The elk and deer were something to look forward to. Back then, I had not been instilled with the fear of the darkness that comes with the wilderness. As I’ve become older, I’ve heard many stories of what happens in the forests. I think that the only reason that we fear the wilderness is because it’s something we don’t know. There is often an inherent fear of the unknown, and there is safety in knowing. This fear stems from humans not knowing what dangers lay in the wilderness. All we know is that it holds wild animals and plants, and for all we know, savages.

            It bothered me to hear of the wilderness described with such negative terms. As an obstacle to be overcome. As a place filled with evil creatures. As useless. I believe that everything was created by God, and with that being so, everything is good, including the wilderness. It’s disappointing to see the wilderness dwindiling away as humans cultivate and erect buildings, which only increase pollution. Are we helping the earth or slowly destroying it? The latter seems to be the case.

            I read a book in middle school called The Hatchet, a book which does a good job of highlighting the fact that the wilderness can be something we embrace, although not without difficulty because it forces us to embrace a lifestyle different than what we’re used to. In embracing the unfamiliarity of the landscape he crashes into while flying in a plane, the main character in the book learns to live off the wilderness. He learns to survive. What strikes me is just that. He wasn’t living. He was surviving, which is the picture that media in its many forms portrays. It then does not come as a surprise that we don’t have an inclination towards the woods. Scary movies often occur in forests, where people are often murdered. Forests are shown to be haunted and house spirits. We are products of the forces that are thrown at us, and that’s not even taking into account what history tells us.