Thursday, January 29, 2009

More than once, the saying, “It’s like the pot calling the kettle black,” has come across my mind while in class. David Abram wrote of a disconnect from nature, of a devaluing of the basic sensuous experience through such things as manufactured goods and classifying nature. I thought it to be very odd, that one who believed manufactured goods to destroy the wonder of nature to write and produce a book. Society is made of nature, surrounded by it, and runs on it. We may not openly acknowledge the presence of nature, but we embrace nature in a new way.
David Abram calls for people to become connected to nature. I would argue that we already are. I may not have gone to Nepal and meditated upon the wonder of a spider in the midst of a monsoon, but that doesn’t mean that I’m disconnected. I walk to school, admiring the clouds and the plants that I see. Even in the middle of a lecture class, I take time to think about the elements of nature that have made my notes and homework possible. This kind of sensuous experience is the sensuous experience of our day. It is more concerned with acknowledgement, then communion.
People who can connect with nature amidst the “disconnect,” represent the new age of sensuous experience. Just as religious freedom today is very different from what it was during the founding of our nation, sensuous experience today is different from our hunter gatherer ancestors. Hunters and gatherers, lived in direct contact with the earth, and that effected how they interacted with the earth. They connected through ceremonies that involved their direct contact with earthly elements. While we live in our well furbished houses, with heating and cooling, we show reverence to the earth in a different way. We use certain kinds of building materials and employ certain building methods. Household plants, greenhouses, personal gardens, and even lawns are the new age of sensuous experience. They show that even though man no longer lives directly in nature as he once did, he still desires to be surrounded by it.
Some would argue that there is no new age, only disconnect. I respectfully disagree. If we are to maintain the things we have, the society that provides life saving medical procedures, pictures to preserve memories, and the ability to provide relief to people in need half a globe away, we must also maintain the society that made these things possible. Society did not reject nature, nor did it forget it. Rather, this new society saw the need to have buildings, manufactured goods, and order; then looked for ways to preserve nature’s presence in it. This gave rise to parks, landscaping, and other public and personal displays of nature. This is a manifestation of the new age. One that cannot be close to nature the way its ancestors were, but strives to keep the presence of nature.
I do not have to go to the remote wildernesses of the world to see nature. The stone, the wood, it all comes from nature, the manufactured goods, still draw from the richness of the earth. In this way I am connected with nature. Our ancestors reverenced the earth with their ceremonies, we shouldcon reverence it in how we use it.

9 comments:

  1. Very Interesting perspective, I must admit that when I look at my paper I do not think of nature, but if you are connected I see how you could. I believe that I am disconnected with nature; I repeatedly tell my wife that when I leave Utah I will miss the mountains of which I have regretfully used none at all of in sex years. I hope to connect more to nature.

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  2. I absolutely agree with what you're saying. The new technologically driven society that we live in makes it nearly impossible for us to have the time of connected nature that it speaks of in the Spell of the Sensuous. Like you said, we have to change and adapt the way we look at and connect with nature. However, I think it is still beneficial (whenever possible) to get into the raw elements of nature. Those natural encounters help get me through the times when all I have to connect with is a walk to school!

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  3. Manufactured goods are not bad, however with the state of the world I can't help but disagree with the 'sensuous experience' of our day. This mindset that we have may not be good enough. It seems that this is what we have settled for and are willing to leave it at that. But the current state of the environment is telling us that the way we are living is not sustainable. We need to reevaluate the way we look at and deal with nature because at the rate we are going, there will not be much left. I want my children to see more animals other than squirrels and feral cats. I want them to experience a wilderness, not just a cultivated garden.

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  4. Living in the technological world means living around lots of other people, usually in a metropolitan setting. When we live amongst a diversity of people we have opportunity to communicate, and relate with others. Technology enhances our ability understand what our brothers and sisters are doing across the world. If we were to live in nature and observe the ants and spiders, we could easily lose touch with reality. I agree that manufactured goods and technology enhance our senses, along with a good mix of nature experiences. It's better to live around a bunch of people, as opposed to living amongst a bunch of trees.

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  5. that is great that you can appreciate nature while in an industrialized setting. it seems though that you are the minority in a drastic way. it is very difficult to appreciate the forest if you arent in it. it is a stretch to force yourself to remember to make those connections and there are very few who are willing and have the cognizience to do so.

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  6. I think that it is important to reconnect with nature in its raw form every once in a while and that is why, at least for my family, vacations always meant camping (actually we probably went camping because it was cheaper than anything else) But I also think you are right that the reason we have gardens and lawns and parks is so that we can connect with nature if only for a little bit. Some people have large gardens while others just have a little flower bed and I guess it all depends on the persons needs and priorities.

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  7. I also chuckle just a little when David Abram goes on to lambast language, but he obviously takes great pride in his word choice. I've enjoyed the book and I think it does offer a valid points, but ultimately I must agree with the above blog author when he disagrees with Abram's diagnosis with our culture's relationship with nature. Either men are natural (thus our creations are natural), or we are synthetic (which fundamentally eliminates any 'disconnect' problem).

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  8. I think that there are s lot of really valid points here. It is true that the connection that we share with nature today isn't as easily contrived as it once was. It takes work and effort to take notice of the things that surround you and to appreciate all that the earth has provided- of course the latter requires that you know something about the origins of your stuff. However, in a world where everything is prepackaged and easy, I don't think it is too big of a bother to stop, ponder, and remember who we have to thank for all of this.

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  9. I agree that we do connect to nature in a technological world. However, I believe the connection is more tenuous and difficult to maintain. When I'm in the mountains or on a lakeshore, my senses are experiencing the smell of pine trees, the sound of the wind across the lake surface, and the feel of the sand and stones beneath my feet. When I walk to school, I see the mountains, the sky, and the clouds, but, to quote a John Denver song, they don't exactly fill up my senses. I think that a disconnect with nature has occured in many people. As individuals we can buck this trend, even in a technological world, but it is difficult.

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