The Fog of Winter

The Season

November 19, 2018 Comments (0) journal

I Know I’ve Asked this Before…

It seems that there is all too often a disconnect between what we say and what we do. That may be the case in a variety of ways but it is most certainly true when it comes to our relationship with the environment. (There are significant problems with even using that word, “environment,” to describe something that is outside of ourselves, rather than seeing humans as a part of the larger web of life. A deep delving into these issues will have to wait, however, for some other post.)

Not to get in too deep, but I am curious as to why people who travel to get to a beautiful place, who come to see the mountain or the river or the beach because it nourishes them somehow, perhaps in ways they can feel but not describe, why these same people leave their garbage behind them when they go. Juice containers shoved behind a rock, toilet paper festooned in the thicket at the waterfall… it makes no sense. What does it say about who these people are, who any one of us really is, actually?

For starters, I guess it probably says a lot about how we, as individuals, see the “Environment.”