Interesting talk. I had a blessing of a Wisconsin agrarian immersed in nature childhood. I think my parents were unconscious animists alive to the aliveness of “nature” (can’t think of another word) with all sorts of sensitivities to lands, animals, soil, weather as I had also. A spring time ritual was mom taking us to Tollefson’s Woods on the property of a neighboring dairy farmer. It had an incredible display of spring ephemerals, wild flowers that bloomed in May before the leafy tree canopy closed in. Delicious morel mushrooms dotted the flowers. I would take them home to fry up in my dad’s homemade butter made from the cream of our guernsey cow. Mom’s six lively children would hush at the incredible Lothlorien beauty of the wood and walk through the flowers in silence. 50 years later garlic mustard, a European plant, has green carpeted that wood as it has all across that area and spring ephemerals are no more. And yes, humans are to be the kings of the biosphere God placed Adam in Eden to “dress and keep it” the Hebrew for those words is also translated. “to serve and observe closely”
I really appreciate your points about 'invasive species', and I've had the same creepy feeling about that way of talking and thinking as you do. It really smacks of, well, you know what. And you mention that 'invasive species' make people realise that nature has agency. I honestly feel like that is an important point... there are people who can only feel for an uttely passive, utterly defeated victim. Many actually. And nature being not-that is uncomfortable all on it's own. Something other-than-us that is helpless deserves (useless) protestations of support. Something other-than-us that has agency and an unsentimental will to survive is an enemy.
Interesting talk. I had a blessing of a Wisconsin agrarian immersed in nature childhood. I think my parents were unconscious animists alive to the aliveness of “nature” (can’t think of another word) with all sorts of sensitivities to lands, animals, soil, weather as I had also. A spring time ritual was mom taking us to Tollefson’s Woods on the property of a neighboring dairy farmer. It had an incredible display of spring ephemerals, wild flowers that bloomed in May before the leafy tree canopy closed in. Delicious morel mushrooms dotted the flowers. I would take them home to fry up in my dad’s homemade butter made from the cream of our guernsey cow. Mom’s six lively children would hush at the incredible Lothlorien beauty of the wood and walk through the flowers in silence. 50 years later garlic mustard, a European plant, has green carpeted that wood as it has all across that area and spring ephemerals are no more. And yes, humans are to be the kings of the biosphere God placed Adam in Eden to “dress and keep it” the Hebrew for those words is also translated. “to serve and observe closely”
I really appreciate your points about 'invasive species', and I've had the same creepy feeling about that way of talking and thinking as you do. It really smacks of, well, you know what. And you mention that 'invasive species' make people realise that nature has agency. I honestly feel like that is an important point... there are people who can only feel for an uttely passive, utterly defeated victim. Many actually. And nature being not-that is uncomfortable all on it's own. Something other-than-us that is helpless deserves (useless) protestations of support. Something other-than-us that has agency and an unsentimental will to survive is an enemy.