How to Heal at the End of Nature

    In one of the readings for this week the topic of boundary lines were discussed as to how they affect interactions and influence thinking. I think humans are unique creatures because we developed complex societal roles for us to live together and function in a way that supposedly benefits everyone. Something we created is our constructed distinctions. Lines and boundaries have been made to keep "order" and common understanding in society. Jason Brown's article mostly dissects this in the distinction of nature and society. Nature, in the case of Brown's in orange county and other cities was a destination to be traveled to. Urban areas are not seen as natural, and do not offer the same feeling as gazing out in vast open spaces. However, this feeling is man made. Cites can be natural and beautiful. Especially if more natural spaces and vegetation is incorporated into its planning. Ron Finley's talk about urban gardening proved these boundaries have gone too far when he was arrested for planting carrots in an effort to have healthy food in the south central LA food desert. These boundary lines ingrained into our civilization have to be enforced to keep society functioning in its current state. These boundary lines exist not just in controlling populations. They affect our thinking and understanding of the world.

   Boundary lines also affect language and thought. Language creates thought. The common example is the number of names for snow in the Inuit language compared to english. Scientific language has its objective and removed grammar in its classifications, but it isn't the absolute knowledge to classify the subject. In many cases too much reliance on one field of study narrows our understanding of its absolute nature. Ron Finley pointed out it just puts it into a box and can act to limit understanding. After all the byproduct of scientific understanding was the loss of our connection to nature. What was once a powerful and benevolent force turned into a machine we can study, control, and extract resources from to better our understanding and quality of life. Now we are experiencing the negative effects that relationship with nature has caused. The eucalyptus example of Brown's essay also showed humans' limited understanding of natural ecosystems and how the same words used to explain removal of invasive species are used in immigration and the removal of peoples. Why is it that natural areas are separate from human civilization when those humans civilizations were removed in the creation of those vast beautiful areas. In the end it is language that creates boundaries and lines of how we think and live our lives. Live our lies.

   Americans have the right to pursue happiness, but what is happiness. The book Joyful Militancy points out how our culture tells us to work hard and find happiness through money and material items, but happiness is never reached. Again, language controls our thought and shifts the messages and our understanding. What if we were told to find joy? joy comes and goes while happiness is a destination. Our work to find happiness shuts out some of the interactions we could have if instead we were to find joy. We're to busy in our own little drama to realize the existence of others who can be caught in that same way of thinking. Instead we should find the joy of interacting with others and the realization that everyone is doing the best they can with what they got. Spreading joy instead of happiness is a small but powerful shift in our thinking. When we realize the boundaries and distinctions in our society, in both our interactions with ourselves and nature we will be able to shift cultural expectations of thinking and enact a new and lasting changes for future peoples to come.