“One reason for confusion and conflict is that Americans have become denatured. That is to say, they have forgotten the skills their ancestors acquired to manage an often unruly natural world around them, and they have largely withdrawn from direct contact with that world by spending most of their time indoors, substituting a great deal of real nature with reel nature – edited, packaged, digitized, and piped in electronically.” (Sterba, xv-xvi)

This passage expresses a key concern that has been presented throughout the class so far. People are regarded as separate from nature, and people don’t try to be a part of it. I really enjoyed the “real” and “reel” play on words. It compares true experiences in nature with those presented in images, from photos or movies or anything else people view indoors these days. People enjoy pretty images of nature all the time, but don’t always go out to explore it.

[Describing Cadillac Mountain] “A landscape created by glaciers that advanced and receded for a million years. Like a sculptor with chisels and sandpaper, the glacial ice cut and smoothed bedrock, creating twenty-six mountains of pink granite arranged side by side, north to south, many elongated like baguettes of French bread.” (Sterba, 8)

As a geology lover (and major), this passage stood out as it made me think about geologic processes through geologic time. This transformation of land occurred over a very long time compared to the lifetime perceived by humans. The description paints a beautiful image of how majestic and artistic nature can appear.

I also just found it very interesting that Acadia National Park went through so many different names! One of these names was Lafayette National Park. We often talk about the importance of naming things, and so I thought it pretty cool that this national park once shared the same name as our school.