Is this the end?

The End (Apocalypse Version) - The Doors (Listen to while reading for dramatic effect)

“Do you feel like you’re coming of age at the end of nature? “

Wow! What a question!

I see three parts to deconstruct in answering.

What is the “The End”? Is this the end?

How does one “come of age”?

What even is “Nature”?

“The End”

To start with “the end”, I’m not sure what signifies the end. Is there ever really an end to anything? Isn’t constant change the only constant that ever existed? If so, there is no end because there never was a beginning. All that ever was, is a state of constant transition. Sure, there is an end of nature as we humans in our short lived existence have known it. However, change is part of a greater pattern that has always existed, no surprises there. Our short lived human lives are material manifestations of how nature is born, and nature dies. As with all things, they are born and they die, but from death, life is thus reborn. This is the balance of ying and yang, the ever-changing shifting balance that drives creation and destruction. There is no end, and there is no beginning, just a circle, which is life.

“Coming of Age”

An analogy for a moment of lost innocence where one comes of age is running into a freezing riptide, jumping into a glacial lake, or river. Coming into the moment, there is fear of the cold, the discomfort, and the vulnerability which you are to be exposed to. In the moment, you truly feel cold, uncomfortable, vulnerable, yet completely freed, alive. Post freezing water when you’re running from the riptide, drying in warm sunshine by the lake, or sipping hot chocolate with your warm clothes on, you are victorious because know you have conquered a certain feat. Becoming comfortable being uncomfortable is how one becomes truly comfortable, more resilient, and stronger. Though fearful, discomforting and vulnerable moments, we learn to feel the cycle of loss and rebirth in which we grow and evolve. 

At what moment, did you as a human come of age? If you’re like me, you cannot pinpoint a moment where you were a child, lost all innocence, and then awoke into an anointment of “of age”. Coming of age is not just one riptide, nor is it just one glacial bath, it is many. Coming of age is a series of events, not one moment of instant rebirth. It means to find one’s place within a situation, and to shift perspective, which all comes from a certain loss of a certain type of innocence. Through these events, we loose and change, while we grow one’s epistemology. To shape and increase preciseness of one’s epistemology through experiences, is how one comes of age.

What is “nature”?

“Nature” in and of itself is a human created construction which creates a hierarchy within the world for what is considered beautiful and natural. Ironically, within the nature hierarchy, humans are often seen at the lowest part of the triangle, sometimes even separate from what we may call nature. This view is opposite of a biological standpoint where humans are the “highly evolved” species and highly regarded within the hierarchy. So what is nature, and where do humans lie on the “nature spectrum” if you will? Understanding humans as separate from nature and or top of the nature hierarchy seems both optimistically speciest and rather narcissistic. What makes us humans who live and decompose any less or any more “nature” than rotting fruit, rabbits or mountain ranges?  As Ron Finley said in his lecture at HSU last week, “If you’re trying to connect to nature, go look in a goddamn mirror. You are part of that magic”. Finley explained magic as an interconnected process which scientists could not explain or know everything about. He explained the compost process in his garden as magic, then proclaimed that “compost makes my tits hard” because what we are told is trash, is truly a necessary and beneficial part of growth. Compost may look like trash, humans may act like trash, but both are part of the balance of the world which we humans have constructed into understanding as nature.

If humans are separate from nature then what are we? Aliens? Gods and goddesses? Or should I say Goddex?  “Without nature there are no humans, without humans there is no nature” which means humans cannot exist except as part of an evolving transition the world has undergone to create us( pg 89. Joyful Militancy). The world and its entirety may exist without humans, but nature is merely a word humans have constructed in order to categorize the world. Therefore, nature does not exist without humans.

Into the “End of Nature”

So to answer the question of am I coming of age at the end of nature? No, because nature is not ending, and it does not come as a surprise that the world is changing, for it always has been. Sometimes the world feels like The Apocalypse of The End in The Doors video posted previously, but that is just my short lived world as I have known it. To be heartbroken in the face of change is silly because a lifetime of any length has shown change as the only constant. To be saddened by loss is also silly because the larger the loss, the larger the growth in the aftermath. Sure, what our future holds may be terrifying because of the unknown circumstances our world will evolve to, but it will also be beautiful. Why beautiful? The world has undergone ice ages, and the world has undergone desertification in different eras. These changes have led to the end of the world as life knew it then, but has evolved into the beautiful world as we know it now. Our short time here, evolving into the Anthropocene has been full of wonder and beauty, so I do no doubt the same for the future, as we dive deep into the Anthropocene and whatever post Anthropocene may hold.