Going to nature

While this discussion is applicable to many of us, I have always had a distant relationship with nature in some ways and not others, despite my curiosity. When I was 8 I had installed an amateur composting system in my backyard (A hole I dug and dumped our food waste in that the raccoons constantly got into) and an herb garden I used to make my natural teas and at home beauty products. At the same time, my family lived close to Tahoe and I always begged my dad to go, to which he would respond in his Salvadorian accent, “Brown boys don’t go to the snow” with a laugh. On other occasions, I’d beg to go camping, and he’d reply, “Why would we choose to sleep outside?” Despite almost being unsuccessful in my attempts to go to places of nature, it then occurred to me that, “we were always going to nature” (Coming of Age, 66). It became apparent that nature was something to visit. Something separate and in being separate was something unlike us. That separation created a divide from my father and nature and in turn divided me by default. Although I have always been white passing, I knew it applied to my family and me. Because of this construct of nature, particularly of people of color as it being separate, it affected my initial relationship with nature.

Anything from my starting point would feel like an improvement. With that being said, as I grow into what nature means to me and how I can be of help, I realize that we, ourselves, are nature. I was fortunate enough to attend the Ron Finley talk where he described this seemingly obvious correlation. He said, “we are the nature. We decompose. Look in the mirror. WE are the nature.” I had one of those moments where everything in my life seemed to overlap together in relevance. My current feelings of defining nature, my capstone, and this lecture all came together in that moment, making everything clear. No matter what we accomplish, whether it is bettering ourselves, an aspect of the environment, or one another, we are all nature and benefiting from that actions being taken to make it better.