Apart of Nature.

Let me recite to you your life so far, if I may be so bold:

You were born, someplace, some time ago and began growing up some time after that. You lived in a dwelling of some type, made of things like concrete, rebar, possibly brick and/or stone, and can't remember the first time you rode in a car. Nowadays things aren't that much different; you are still living in a dwelling, still riding around in cars, and you probably take it all for granted. Sound about right?

Did you ever stop to think about the fact that it hasn't always been this way? See, when you're born into this world you're immediately thrust into a working society of construction, renovation, deforestation and urbanization. There are already innumerable cars on the road, not to mention the innumerable roads themselves, and buildings of all shapes and sizes. People go about their lives as if there is and always has been a division between man and nature. "Mankind lives in buildings and drives cars," they seem to think, "and nature doesn't." Simple as that. But there was a time (and forgive me if this seems like an obvious point because at one time not long ago I thought it was, too) when Man was a part of nature; when human beings lived in nature, not apart from it. Then, as we began to "evolve"--to use the term loosely--we taught ourselves to use tools and build shelters. Pretty soon we built better shelters, and better ones still. Then we had the industrial revolution, and suddenly we were no longer living in nature at all. Suddenly the natural world was something else. Consequently, today people don't even think of our world--the one made of asphalt and plastic--as even existing within nature. Just look at the first definition of "nature" according to Dictionary.com: "The material world, esp. as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities."

I challenge you, reader, to look around you the next time you leave the house and realize that there is no invisible fence; no Great Wall separating our urban, bipedal life from the natural world that was here long before us. We have built everything that you see, and in doing so have separated ourselves. We still breathe the same air and sleep under the same moon. The sun that we hide indoors from at the peak of summer was already there long before there was even such a thing as indoors.

Now I know that coming to this realization won't immediately change anything about the world, except maybe your view of it. But really, what is more important than that? The goal of the green life is to not necessarily forget how far we've come as a society or as a species, but to remember where we came from. We owe our very existence to nature, and if we want to stay around we'd better start noticing it.

That's all for now. Until next time, remember: You may own the house, but you're only renting the land.