“NEIGHBORHOOD TREEHOUSE.” Jackson Junge Gallery,
The painting attached above can have various different interpretations. However, when I look at it I feel like it really explains who I am as far as my connection with nature and what is around me. I live in a neighborhood in a small town. Behind my house there are very deep woods. I have a mix between secluded and not secluded. My neighborhood is very quiet because there is not a lot of human activity going on except for my other neighbors. This painting is called the neighborhood treehouse. We are all connected to nature but not secluded to only nature. If I want to just be alone and take in nature for what it truly is I can, but if I want to have a social life without going far I can talk to my neighbors. We all live in a community tree. We all have access to nature and the social world. Kingsolver explains how she loves to just be alone in nature and be able to look out for miles and see nothing but untouched earth. It is also clear that the log cabin is very secluded. “On a given day I may walk the half mile down our hollow to the mailbox, hail our neighbors, and exchange a farmer’s evaluation of the weather (terrible; it truly is always either too wet or too dry in these marginal tobacco bottoms). I’ll hear news of a house mysteriously put up for sale, a dog on the loose, or a memorable yard sale” (Kingsolver). It is so secluded that she has to walk very far to even see a person and she never knows about anything going on until she goes and talks to people. I agree with Kingsolver that we need “wildness” because it is a part of the planet that we live on. Whatever is not a part of nature is man-made and has been created as people evolve and develop. Nature allows us to have a better understanding of many different things and it also gives us access to resources. Even if you live in the city you can still form a connection with nature. There is nature all around and your appreciation for it depends on how much you allow yourself to connect with it.
If this is not painting is not considered a landscape, my landscape would have a lot of woods and a few houses. Williams explains that there always needs to be a balance between nature and a community. We must feel connected with nature but our “homework” that he talks about is when we need to transition later on and be connected with society. Nature and society both need to be a part of life and Williams defines this as “bedrock democracy.” Hooks piece explained the connection that black people have with land. She explains that goes back to ancestors. History and the events that have occurred over time like sharecropping for example. She explains her childhood and the impact her grandfather had on her because he was a farmer. Having a sense of the beauty of nature helps you to appreciate it more. People can get caught up with their lives, especially today with all the technology and hardly ever give nature a thought. Part of the appreciation comes from what your parents and grandparents have showed you. The house I live in now is the house I have always lived in and when I was younger my parents would make me go outside every day. I would explore the woods behind my house and always get excited when I would find something that was unfamiliar to me. Even if I was just playing with toys outside it still allows you to feel more connected with nature.
I found an article titled “How Modern Life Became Disconnected from Nature.” This caught my attention because it is obvious that society continues to grow further and further away from nature. This is based on a choice and there are people who connect with nature but there are more who do not. Kesebir and Kesebir start by explaining that there have been studies to prove that nature can keep us healthier. However, the question I wanted to know is why we are disconnected with nature. The authors performed a whole study on this and found that there are many different causes to this. However, the two most prominent ones are urbanization and technology development. People are becoming more dependent on man-made products but there are a lot of natural things in nature that can help us just as well (Kesebir).
Kesebir, Selin, et al. “How Modern Life Became Disconnected from Nature.” Greater Good
Hi Lindsey,
You are absolutely on point that “nature is all around us and yes, I too think that because the way the world has “evolve” we have to be able to not only evolve with it but also not loose sight of nature and what it means to us. So depending on where we reside, one have to be able to perceive and salvage whatever piece of nature is around them. For instance, I have always lived in the city and can appreciate it in a different way than I do the wilderness. I love the peace and serenity of the wilderness because (and as you explained in your post) I was introduced to the wilderness as a very young child and for me it was a scary place because I did not quite understand it. The place was uncut, I mean truly undeveloped! There was a lot of lime, lemon and all kind of fruit trees. Beautiful beaches, rivers, animals and no human activity accept for my family. This made me very uncomfortable and I could remember wanting to go back home to the city. I remember getting home and back to business as usual. That meant “community or society” as you mentioned – my house with grass and a few trees around, cars business, etc. As I got older and as life became more hectic, ever so often, I allowed myself to daydream and go back to that time when a six year old me was in the wilderness, and my appreciation for nature grew stronger and stronger for it. Now, in my current life I make sure to not only notice nature all around me, but I also make sure that I am in touch with nature, as well as the kind of “wilderness” that is untouched by man.
I feel like some of what Kingslover’s article stated relates to your post in that there is a kind of balance that we need. For you as a child, the woods behind your house was that joyful place of nature and now your memory of that time seems soothing. And I think in Kingslover’s reading, the place that she goes back to is not just the “wilderness” she talks about. It is also a place that brings her that certain connection and the comfort she seeks to get back to basics/her true self. She mentioned her ancestors being buried there “why, used to be you couldn’t hardly walk around here without stepping on a Kingslover” (Kingslover). Although this wilderness she reverts to now and again is not home per say, it seems to bring her back to where she feels a kind of “belonging”.
Barbara Kingslover’s Brief Biography:
http://www.kingsolver.com/biography/autobiography.html
Hi Lindsey,
I do agree with what you said about us all being connected to society / each other and how important that is for us and our development as human beings. I love the idea of a neighborhood tree / community tree. It makes sense especially in the age of social media, we have never before been able to communicate with one another this quickly. But it’s also important to take a step back and go into nature.. I think what you said about Kingsolver not really seeing people and seeming just very disconnected with humans was interesting as well. I think that this is unhealthy. Being peaceful and working in a quiet space away from all the noise can be very helpful and cleansing for us, but getting to the point where you don’t really know what’s going on, or you need to walk a far distance in order to have human interaction is just a little alarming to me… I would personally become depressed after a while. Thankfully there are ways for us to have balance, though. We can always seek alone time in the forest or at the beach when we find we want a break from everything, which is the thing that I found the most inspiring out of the entirety of Kingsolver’s piece.