Commentary
Reading Last Child in the Woods made me think of two main things: how glad I am for having grown up encouraged to explore nature, and the causes of why our society has distanced itself from nature and living a sustainable life.
I think one thing Louv didn’t mention directly, and what I feel really powers this disconnect, is the way in which our society views time. We live in an extremely future-based conception of time. So many things we do are for the future and financial security that seldom do we actually live for the present moment. In order to get back to a sustainable life, where the connection between nature and survival is made, our whole American, consumer life has to slow way down and our conception of time has to change. Louv makes a scary example of this when asking a fourth grade class if they worried about getting into college and getting a good job. More than half the class raised their hands (118). These are kids! I don’t need any scientific research to convince me that that state of mind and attitude is not healthy.
The idea of prevention and is solely based on the future. Louv mentions today’s parents not allowing their children to explore the woods or climb trees for fear they might hurt themselves. This example of thought only valid if you look at the situations in terms of the future. To grow up as a conscious citizen of this earth, we all need to experience and have a connection to it. Not in a fabricated, sterilized area, but in real life, in real nature. Getting hurt and finding things out for oneself is the only way we can learn. There is no point of living if it’s only based on fear
The future-based mind set has powered our desire for money, which has in turn created this consumer world. We live on so much “fluff”, so many things that distance us from the actual world and fundamentals of survival. Creating things we don’t need for the quest of money only to buy more things we don’t need and create waste and the sprawl of America.
To get back to a more natural way of living, where sprawl development and all the distractions of frivolous consumer life take over what’s really important, we have to start valuing the present. Not let ourselves be dictated by money and fear for the future, but to reconnect with the foundations of life and to ground ourselves on this amazing earth that feeds us.
