In Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven by Barry Holstun Lopez he presents the idea that human beings are more separated from nature than ever before.  As humans, we believe that we know more than any other species.  We are very wrong.  All animals have something to teach us.  Any animal, from the king of the savanna to the smallest little worm, has something that we can learn from it.

This excerpt is very thought provoking.  In the paper Barry Holstun Lopez says, “There is something else here, too, even more important: explanations will occur to you, seeming to clarify; but they can be a kind of trick.  You will think you have hold of the idea when you only have hold of its clothing.”  This made me think that we can spend all our life trying to understand one thing but never really understand it.  We can become experts on a subject, but we still will never fully know everything there is to know about that subject.

Our world is so complex that there is always something new to learn.  Everyday we could learn a million different things and never learn everything there is to know about what is around us.  The feeling of this can make us impatient.  This in turn makes us “accept any explanation in order to move on.”

Lopez also says, “After you have finished with the stone, the twig and the beetle, other things will suggest themselves, and you must take care of them.  I see you are already tired.  But you must stay.  This is the pain of it all.  You can’t keep leaving.”  To me he is saying that once we fix one conservation problem another one will arise.  You will never be done trying to help nature reclaim it’s territory.  It is a very long and tiring process to try to fix all the problems.

We, as humans, create the problems by the industries we choose to support.  We are cutting down trees and building homes in areas where animals once ruled.  We then wonder why they come into our territories and attack us.  We name animals pests when they are just trying to reclaim the territories they once ruled in.  Technically we are the pests.  We sometimes set aside designated land for these animals but it is not what they once had.

Humans, in general, are out of tune with nature.  Many people don’t have time or don’t want to get dirty, so we don’t spend time in the world that our ancestors lived in.  We waste our time in front of digital screens watching shows, playing games, and surfing the web, but rarely do we go outside and enjoy the beautiful sunsets that are accessible anywhere for free.  We waste our money and energy on thing that will just end up in the trash later in the year, rather than, for free, go out and sit on our porches, and just listen to the sounds of the wind blowing, and feel the heat of the sun.  We don’t labor in the fields like our ancestors did but instead drive to go sit in a small cubicle.  We don’t walk anymore even though we complain about the price of gasoline.

If we all just stepped outside and enjoyed what we have around us, then we all could feel better.  If we just spent time enjoying a day outdoors, then we would find cures to disease.  If we all could just help solve problems of overpopulation, then we would help save the lives of many animals that just want to live where they once knew.  If we spent our time trying to understand what the animals in our world feel, then we would be a little more in tune with the nature around us.