In the huge country India, exists a microscopic land, my village. This is not a fancy picture. You might haven’t expected this. But this is my identity, my place where my history exists. Although I haven’t lived here ever, but my parents did. As you can see from the picture it’s a small village, Karan. It’s pronounced as Ka-run. When I was young about 4 years, my parents took me and my brother who is 2.5 years elder than me , to visit this place. Yeah you might be thinking that at that age how can I remember all this, but trust me I do. I do remember because of the beauty of this place. By word beauty I don’t mean the fascinating and delightful scenery that people usually expect. But it was a beauty of nature that you can now see haven’t prevailed. It’s just the wilderness that remained unnoticed. The nature was at its most. My brother and I used to visit the farms my grandfather had. It was extraordinary. The greenery, the agricultural products produce. I still remember the excitement I used to have when my grandpa took us for land seeing. Above all, which I think was the most beautiful was the love and care that everyone had for each other. Everyone in the neighbor regardless of religion, cast, they cared for each other and lived as one, which doesn’t exists anymore.
While going through Kingslover’s reading he mentioned, “On a given day I may walk the half mile down our hollow to the mailbox, hail our neighbors… (Kingslover)”, reminded me of that day when my brother and I took money from my mother and went to buy Popsicle. We bought the Popsicle and enjoyed the taste of it in that sunny day, but we forgot our way back home. When we finally re-united with my family, we both were scolded and spanked. It always bring smile on my face whenever I think about it, even now. Like Kingslover said ” I think of the children who will never know, intuitively, that a flower is a plant’s way of making love, or what silence sounds like, or that trees breathe out what we breath in (Kingslover)” made me ponder that generations after us whose family resided in this village would never know that love that people had, the smell of the farm land, the way people use to live, their struggle and still being happy.
“When we love the Earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully (bell hooks, 363).” This isn’t a statement that bell hook just said but it has a deeper meaning in it, or as what I believe. I’ll give my example, when my room’s messy I get all stressed out and nothing feels good. It feels like I can’t be there anymore if it’s not clean. So when I am done with the cleaning I feel proud of my self in a way that I did it. Similarly, Earth is our home. Loving it will protect us only because destruction of Earth cause consequences that harms us. Skin cancer is one of the example. If we want to love ourselves we need to love our mother Earth and then only wilderness can be prevented and nature can prevail.
It touched my heart when I read through Williams writing which I think best explained the idea of bedrock democracy showing the connection between human and Earth is, ” In an ideal world, a world we might well inhabit one day, we may not need to “designate” wilderness, so evolved will be our collective land ethic, our compassion for all manner of life, so responsive and whole…I pray there will indeed come a time, when our lives regarding the domestic and wild will be seamless (William).” I guess we all will agree that we too hope to see a future with nature in it’s purest form and may one day come when we don’t need to use the word “wilderness” anymore.
I am a city dweller but I belong to 20th century where still I got chance to see the connection between nature and human. The way they took care of it. But today’s generation won’t be able to see the actual connection of nature and human, that’s mostly because the land that were use to be symbol of nature’s beauty are no more. They are somewhat connected to the Earth but it still lacks the original feeling of that connection people used to have. I couldn’t agree or disagree to Barbara Kingslover’s desire of wildness as I don’t understand what she’s trying to say. So I don’t think any of us would need wildness unless we want to harm ourselves.
Hi Afreen!
I liked the photo you used a lot because it is different from what most were posting such as bodies of water or me posting a picture of downtown. I absolutely loved the way you described the nature that came with such an important part of your history. You’re incredibly lucky to remember such an important place since you were so young. The connections you made with the readings really made it feel like you know what you’re talking about which is so great. It honestly made the readings a little easier to understand seeing it from your perspective and having your comparisons to the different quotes mentioned. To connect to your Williams statement as well as bring in Kingsolver, I liked how you connected the bedrock of democracy to possibly removing the title of wilderness. For Kingsolver, that wilderness was what contained that cabin she kept so close to her heart. It held her roots and her and her family’s history. For me the word wilderness always stood for the unknown. Wilderness covered the true beauty of the land and the nature around me and always gave me spooky vibes when I would pass by the woods or see a ton of trees. With people coming together to preserve the land and turn it into something remarkable and beautiful, I do think we can remove the word wilderness and like you said in your blog, “see nature in its “”purest” form.” You stated that you did not understand Kingsolver’s statements regarding the wilderness. I can understand this. For me, I think I just had to make the connections to nature and wilderness being a part of nature and then I was able to see how she might find it beautiful. The cabin is what means the most to her and seems to hold her roots.
Test
your blog reminded me of trip that I took not to long ago to borneo. I saved up a bunch of money with no intent on spending it on a trip. The opportunity arose and cutting a long story short, I went to the island of borneo, in a region owned by malaysia. It was aww inspiring going there and seeing the cities, villages and wild. It was unlike anything I have ever seen, because until then the most foreign place I have been to is alabama. When you talked about how that existence of nature and caring for it is no longer there, it reminded me of one of the places I stayed. To get there it was like a days bus ride and it was deep in the jungle. Sadly though, the last hour to get there was no jungle, but miles of palm trees. from the road out to the horizon was palm trees. farmed to be used for palm oil. It killed me to see all this land that I knew was once full of diversity to have these evenly spaced trees that were basically a waste of space there to supply a demand. Besides the horror of endless palm trees, a realization of what it means to be poor occurred. As well as a jungle resort, I also stayed overnight in a mountain village. It was a place one might call poor, but that is not how it felt. They may have not had the infrastructure you might picture in an american town, but the people were in no sense poor. They may not have had much money, but the villager helped each other, building homes and making roads. with houses being stocked with flat screen tvs, massage chairs, and other luxury goods. Living in america, it can feel that having your own house and everything new is the best way to live. But what I learned in borneo, is that wealth is not accumulated in things, but in enjoyment. I learned that having plenty of money does not make you rich, and that countries and places americans take pity on for not getting to live how an american live may not be as bad as we think. Though many people need help, but there are many people that need help in our own countries too. It is sad to watch our sense of community and neighborness to die out. Hopefully it can be reborn and we can remember to help our neighbors how we should help ourselves.