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BOOK PREVIEW |
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Introduction About the Author, Contact Info
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SPEAKING OF NATURE: Introduction As far as we can tell, the Earth is something on the order of 4.5 billion years old. Actually, that isn't too impressive without all of the zeros, so let me try again. Ready? As far as we can tell, the Earth is something on the order of 4,500,000,000 years old. If you do the math you will see that this breaks down to 4,500,000 millennia, or 45,000,000 centuries. I'll share a little secret with you: that's really old. In that time the Earth has witnessed and endured many catastrophes as molten rock and metal cooled, an atmosphere formed, meteors fell, the continents drifted, and a thin membrane of life spread tenuously across the planet's surface. Great creatures rose and fell, great calamities came and went, and through it all one thing remained constant - time. No matter what happened, time went on.
The first version
learned to use tools, and was later given the designation Homo habilis,
meaning "Handy Man."The next version could use tools, but also
stood erect, and was given the designation Homo erectus. The present version,
third in a line of who knows how many, came forth about 2,000 centuries
ago. It could use tools, it stood erect, and it was smart. It was so smart,
in fact, that it named itself; the name it chose was Homo sapiens, or
"Wise Man." I wonder, though,
if the name "Wise Man" might have been a bit premature. Perhaps
"Smart Man," or "Clever Man" would have been better.
We certainly are clever, but there are times when I doubt that we hold
any wisdom within us at all. Humans have only been around in our present form for the last 2,000 centuries. Put another way, we humans have only been on Earth for the last 0.004 percent of Earth's existence. Up until our arrival, the world got along just fine. Since our arrival, the world has managed to get by pretty well. And should we ever disappear, the world will get along just fine. Of course,
I am using geologic time as a reference, and I am thinking in the long-term.
The problem is that humans do not live on the geological time scale. Few
of us live for a full century, and even if we do, we only live as energetic,
healthy adults for about 50 years. In that time
we want things to go our way We might want that new car, or that fancy
pair of shoes, and we might be willing to do anything to get them. As
a result, we usually think only in the shortest of short-terms. This is
where we run into trouble. Our lives are simply too short to allow us
to see the ramifications of everything we do. Yet while we may not notice
the damage we do to our environment, our children (and their children)
most certainly will. Then of course there are the millions of different
plants and animals that live on Earth with us - that silent majority of
living things that cannot protest whenever we do something stupid. Yet even though we live such short lives, we are smart enough to consider the ramifications of our actions without actually having to witness the results first hand. We are learning to do this because we, the children of our grandparents' children, have seen the ramifications of the actions of the last century. At the beginning
of the 20th Century humanity had the notion that the world was ours to
do with as we pleased. We also had a particularly stupid outlook toward
animals. As an example, let me share a little passage from a newspaper
called the Shelburne Falls Messenger: Dated October
9, 1912, the topic of conversation was owls - "The whole owl family
has likewise been arraigned by the biological survey court, rigorously
tried, and finally discharged with the exception of a single individual.
The old horned owl of the forest is in reality an outlaw. He sits in the
depths of his forest and broods. His wisdom and his brooding have caused
him to become unduly melancholy and he has grown vindictive against his
rival in wisdom, man. To avenge himself upon his rival, he makes haste
to devastate whatever chicken roosts may lie in his path." This, I hope
you will agree, is one of the most idiotic things I have ever heard. To
even suggest that owls seek out and destroy chickens because they are
mad at people is just too loony to even consider. I cannot even comprehend
the mind that came up with such a statement. Today, some
87 years later, we are using our brains a little better. We now know that
owls are just owls. Some are large, some are small and they are all beautiful
birds of prey that will eat anything they can catch and kill. Owls do
not seek vengeance upon us, or our chickens, for anything, and we have
stopped shooting them. Unfortunately, there are many other animals that
we still persecute. In December
of 1999 a very disturbing Associated Press story appeared in newspapers
across the country. In it, we learned that West Coast salmon fishermen
wanted to start shooting seals and sea lions because they believed the
We need to learn
to respect owls, sea lions, blue jays, hummingbirds, oak trees, water
lilies, chipmunks, and the rest of our neighbors on Earth. We have to
learn to consider them on a daily basis, and we have to try to make the
decisions in our lives while keeping them in mind. Only when we can do
this do we deserve the designation of "Wise Man." I have been
greatly privileged to be able to spend a substantial portion of my life
studying nature and the environment. When I share my experiences through
writing I try to help people look at the world in a different way. In
the process I myself routinely learn something new, which makes me a better
advocate for the plants and animals I write about. My goal, one that I
think is very important, is to help us all to become wiser, gentler, and
more considerate people. This book is
a collection of those essays that have had the greatest responses from
my friends. Some of the topics are well worn, others may be new to you,
but in each I hope that you are able to discover something new - something
that you never knew before and something you can share with a friend or
loved one Whether you are a friend of mine from way back when, or a person
who is just getting to know me, I can only hope that you will understand
and appreciate the things I am trying to share with you. One final thought
before I continue on. Do you remember all of the fuss that surrounded
the changing of the calendars from the 1900's to the 2000's? Do you remember
the hysteria and the merchandising? Perhaps you even have a compete set
of Y2K flashlights in your closet at home - unopened and collecting dust?
Well will give you this little bit of advice that you can carry with you
to every New Year and every New Day for that matter: Don't worry! 45 million
centuries have already come and gone, and one more won't make much of
a difference. The year on the calendar is a human artifact and has little
effect on life. As far as the Earth is concerned it is the year 4,500,000,000 and change. Believe me when I tell you that there isn't a herring gull in the world that cares what year it is. They are supremely indifferent to such trivial things. As long as we are close to the ones we love, and as long as we treat others (birds, mammals, plants, people, etc.) with kindness and courtesy, everything will be just fine. After all, we're all in this together. Bill Danielson
Copyright
2001 William Danielson |