The Age of Emptiness or the Coming Creativity?
One day, while driving down a freeway, I looked up to see an empty sky where there had been mountaintops.
Dust was rising as massive earth graders rumbled across a now-blank plain. Seemingly overnight, they had sliced away the horizon.
Later came rows of mini-mansions devoid of color or individuality or visual meaning, and shopping malls, one after another after another after another, with the same anchor stores, the same stucco, the same cars, the same dreamlessness.
Perhaps you’ve shared this feeling – this solastalgia, as Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht calls it: a form of human psychic distress caused by the loss of nature.
The disappearance of that horizon serves as example and metaphor, a reflection of how our society is out of balance, often overwhelmed by technology. Every day, it seems, we’re enervated by empty calories, empty suits, empty politics, empty financial institutions, empty architecture, empty schools, empty news — emptied land.
Do we live in the age of emptiness?
Shift the view just a bit, and the world fills with possibilities. By restoring our kinship with other species, we restore ourselves. Imagine nature-rich and nature-smart homes, neighborhoods, schools, parks, urban and rural farms, workplaces, whole cities.
To build this kind of a world, we need more than conservation. We need a new nature movement, not one that urges us back to nature, but forward to nature.
The eco-theologian Thomas Berry, a man who knew the power of practical dreaming, said the “Great Work” of the 21st century would be to reconnect our humanity to the reality and spirit of nature, to the fullness of life. Instead of settling for an age of emptiness, we could be entering one of the most creative periods in human history.
It’s a choice.
_________________________
Richard Louv is co-founder and chairman emeritus of The Children & Nature Network, and author of THE NATURE PRINCIPLE and LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS.
Photo: Nevada’s Valley of Fire, R.L.
ACCCCH! That is the title of my book! Forward to Nature: A Family Nature Journal (soon to be finished). I couldn’t believe it when I saw this! Timing! The title was chosen because I began the book with a back to nature slant. Along the way I realized that it had become just an attempt by an old fuddy duddy (me!) wishing we could return to simpler times, and trying to drag everyone back there with me to see how cool it is. I realized I was not relevant to the regular family… that nature needs to be exciting in the modern world. It’s unfortunate that we live in a time when Xbox and Wii have taken the place of skipping rocks, but there is still much to be devoured in nature to make our lives full and joyful. Thank you for confirming my direction, and I hope you will look for my book.
I take hope in my two children. They get it!! And they are very smart and doing great things like majoring in soil science and international resources management and in political sciences and history and biochemistry. They are fully aware that they will have to mop up after we Boomers finish our unsustainable reign. And, how sad, because we all had such common and good world views and fought the system for world peace, equal rights and the environment back then when we were young in the 60′s and 70′s. I think there is still time for us to turn this unsustainable vector we are on around for the young people who follow us so they can have what we had and not be throwing it away piece by piece every day so there’s not much left for them.
A new nature movement…what a great idea. I also think it is important to keep looking back even as we try harder to look forward. In the environment, lots of changes happen gradually, so many people don’t even notice, and they quickly get used to things. It doesn’t take long before we forget how things once were – a baseline for comparison. If we forget, how will be prepared to preserve what we can for the future? A sense of legacy is important, too. But, ultimately, I agree with you…onward! Forward!