A Part Of or Apart From...Nature?

So I was watching a documentary on coral reefs yesterday that really started me thinking. Two marine biologists were exploring a dying coral reef off the coast of Fiji. Several shots showed small “cleaner” fish and shrimp that have a symbiotic relationship with larger fish in which the “cleaner” enters into the mouth of the larger organism, scrubbing its teeth and gums of parasites and bacteria. An act that benefits both larger fish (complementary dental hygiene) and hygienist (lunch); but one that takes an enormous amount of trust on the part of each participant. Suddenly one of the divers removed her mouthpiece and leaned toward a scavenging shrimp, jaws open wide. The shrimp took the cue and climbed aboard, feelers pulsating as it worked its way further and further into her mouth, ever so delicately probing and collecting its treasures. Afterward she commented that though she had observed reef communities for years this was the first time she had actually interacted with the ecosystem.
Wow. As an ecologist I devote a large part of my classroom to discussing whether man is apart from nature or a part of nature. Our societal response to nature is too often to avoid it, or to control it to our advantage. We’ve lost a vital connection to nature. One whose outcome is yet to be seen. I teach that our current global system is one that has never existed before in the whole of human history – or the whole of earth history, for that matter! Yet, when was the last time I interacted directly with nature? That a seasoned marine biologist was marveling at her rare interaction with the natural ecosystem to which she has devoted her life’s work, made me wonder about my own connection. While most of us would consider the very fact that she spends countless hours beneath the ocean’s surface among the vastly surreal world of a coastal coral reef would qualify as “interaction with nature”, she herself feels a disconnect with her natural environment.
Again: when was the last time really interacted with nature? Recently, I hiked to a remote location in the Hill Country where a rare Madrona tree grow horizontally out of a vertical stream bank, looking (for naught) for signs of recruitment (saplings, seedlings) in the nearby and downstream area. I scoured my childhood creekbeds, scavenging for dewberries and collecting limestones to build a series of stone pathways in my own backyard. My favorite fall activity is to lie among a grove of trees on a windy day, feeling the kiss of falling leaves on my face and hands. And I’ve been known to literally hug a tree or two out of sheer joy for its presence. But does that count as interacting? Or is it one more selfish act of using nature to my own enjoyment and benefit?? While some of my non-science-majors students would see that as total nature-freak behavior, I feel very much like the marine biologist – pondering just how far outside of the “ecosystem” I’ve positioned myself, even as I devote my career to its continuation.
I employ the “we only care about those things that we really know and understand” position in my courses. I use that as motivation for assisting my students in re-building (or constructing for the first time) that intimate connection between self and nature. Hammering home the idea that there exists a fragile balance of nature upon which we utterly and vitally depend for our own survival. Sure, I plan and execute hands-on activities in the natural landscape. But how much can one truly learn from the words and demonstrations of another? How much of true knowledge depends on a direct experience of a phenomenon, absent of teacher manipulation? I think I feel the winds of change in the way I teach (AKA assist learning). Challenging a student’s learning model just took on a whole new meaning. What if I challenge my students to beginning journaling actual interactions (and require them to make judgments of what constitutes an interaction) with nature? I’m curious as to the potential ways they will enhance their own, and each others’ (and even my) knowledge and understanding of nature! I’m excited for what lies ahead! Think I’ll put down my computer, go outside and begin my own journaling journey…