I’m a big fan of the Adult Swim show, “Off The Air.” The episodes are all about 12 minutes long and are all available on YouTube. The show is a series of strung together vignettes and music that all follow a loose theme. Each episode is a one word theme (dance, falling, nightmares, nature, etc.) and includes stock video, bits from other movies or videos, and a lot of strange animation. These videos are incredibly fun to watch, as they break the traditional “rules” of media and rest gently on the border between profound social commentary and complete nonsense.

The one entitled “Nature”, however, displays some pretty great symbolism that represents and critiques humans’ relationship with nature, especially through film, art, and hunting. I made a bit of a scavenger hunt (much like the one in Cabela’s), and would love to know if you found these things in the video and what you think the filmmakers were trying to say by including them:

1. Flash Drive -> Owl
2. Hunter & Rabbit
3. Digitizing nature
4. Drumming birds
5. Milk & Honey
6. Park Bench
7. “What’s up?” birds
8. Bear & Rabbit
9. Rhino & Airplane
10. Cartoonization
11. Dog “blob”

One thing I want to direct everyone towards is their attempt to reverse anthropomorphization. How did they do it? Do you think it worked?

NAture Wars

Feeding wild birds is, in essence, a form of wildlife management- some say use– in which participants manipulate the natural world to create outcomes they want- in this case, using food to lure birds into viewing range” (234).

It all depends on how you see it. Feeding birds can have the effect of introducing massively more amounts of seed into an environment than was ever intended, or natural, and there are averse impacts that your average outdoor enthusiast could never have seen coming.

Walden

“Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense?… While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will any not endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” (353).

“I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pondside; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface or the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now” (Thoreau 351). 

This message will be the one that I hold closest to me while concluding my adventure through Walden. Thoreau and I agree wholeheartedly that one of the more threatening dangers to humans is the ease with which we can fall into the deep “ruts of tradition and conformity.” Pair this passage with the volumes of studies done on how mental and emotional health deteriorates due to the pressures of conformity. Falling into these ruts robs oneself of discovering the truth about life and themselves. Allowing each individual within a society to stay in the “cabin passage” inhibits the potential for social progress. Staying below the metaphorical deck does not permit us to question traditions and conformity that marginalizes, endangers, and disrespects members of society as well as the environment in which society resides. If every member of society followed Thoreau’s advice, in this passage, we would be living in a much better society.

“It is obvious that people would eat a lot less meat if they had to hunt, kill, skin or pluck, eviscerate, disassemble, and cook whatever animal or bird or fish they wanted to consume. These tasks are work, and many people would find them unpleasant. The modern protein industry made it much easier and cheaper to get battered, ready-to-eat chicken parts from the freezer section of a food store and pop them into a microwave or toaster oven. Even serious cooks buy raw chickens, whole or in parts, with feathers, heads, and feet removed, usually packaged in a plastic tray, resting on a little paper diaper, and sealed in a clear plastic wrap. Those birds have come a long way from the chicken coop” (Sterba 199).

This is the phenomenon that, for me, is at the root of the overconsumption-of-meat problem. I truly believe that everyone should at least see what it takes to kill and process food, specifically that which was once a living animal. This is yet another reason that I am pro-hunting for food/population stabilization. I truly think people would reconsider their meat consumption if they saw the inside of a slaughterhouse or had to kill and process an animal themselves.

At some point in high school, one of my friends stumbled upon this video and popularized it within my grade. It’s 65 seconds of awkward amusement, and our adventure at Cabela’s this Saturday reminded me of it. A few of us discussed our thoughts on and impressions of taxidermy which ranged from feelings of being creeped out to feelings of being sad for the loss of life and glorification of death by human dominance. I think this video is funny, but what does it say about taxidermy? Is it presented as an art form or as an assertion of humans controlling that which they seek to kill?

My boyfriend and many of my close friends from home attend Binghamton University in upstate New York and have told me about the nature preserve that they have on campus and how beautiful it is. In addition to hearing about this preserve I also heard about the great lengths that the University goes to in order to protect the spotted salamander populations. Sterba’s piece about roadkill reminded me of the efforts that Binghamton University goes to in order to protect the spotted salamander that lives in this Preserve.

In order to migrate from the woods where the salamanders burrow in the winter to Harpur pond in the spring where they breed, they must migrate across a campus roadway. In order to protect them from cars the University actually shuts down this roadway for weeks at a time. The university has also installed salamander ramps. These ramps help the salamanders reach the club and get over to the other side. Before these ramps were installed in 1978, the animals often were trapped in the roadway, died of dehydration or were picked up by crows.

Salamander ramp

What do you guys think of Binghamton’s efforts to save this species? Do you think that Lafayette would ever do something like this if there was a population that needed help? Maybe our new efforts to save birds from flying into windows could be our version of this!

“That is to say, once people moved into the sprawl, they considered it to be damaged habitat, no longer natural and thus less worthy of protection. Europeans, on the other hand, viewed the places they lived as natural ecosystems that required intensive human management, however heavily populated. Living spaces in Europe were thought of as “in a sense, human created nature or natural systems.” In North America, in contrast, the primary policy goal was the protection of nature that was as pristine as possible–meaning the largely peopleless nature over the horizon, up north or out west” (Nature Wars 217)

Harks back on what we classify as nature/wilderness. The view in US of nature as something untouched by man makes integration impossible and may have resulted in an unnecessary degradation of nature in suburban communities.

” The spell of human and livestock waste was part of farm life. On a good, hot summer day wehn the wind was right, we smelled manure from our neighbor’s farm down the road. These everyday smells have gone missing from the lives of most americans…They expected a kind of quiet landscaped outdoor museum in which their views never change and the smells were all pleasant. The concept of a working landscape didnt occur to them” (Nature Wars 196).

Also similar to discussions of nature as something picturesque, that people don’t actually interact with. Reminded me of walden in bemoaning the way that lifestyle has changed in favor of older ways of living.

” However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not as bad as you are. It looks porest when you are richest. The fault- finder will find faults even in paradice. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house” (Walden 356)

Thoreau has a far more positive and inspiring message here than was present in the rest of the text to the everyday man. When earlier in the book Thoreau had told the common man to reject their everyday lives of toiling in pointless jobs, he has now shifted his tune and is telling them to appreciate what they have.

“Take, for example, running over creatures with motor vehicles. The idea that roads would be smooth enough, vehicles fast enough , and wildlife abundant enough to create today’s carnage on our roadways would have been unthinkable not long ago. Now not only is it thinkable, it has a name, roadkill, that has become the subject of endless jokes, and it is widely thought to be an unavoidable cost of modern mobility” (Sterba, 187).

“Wood and chain link fences mark the boundaries between neighbors, but each neighbors lights here, all across America, are allowed to roam far beyond their boundaries- a perfect example of what dark sky advocates call “light trespass. The lights from these unshielded fixtures not only trespass onto the yards of neighbors and into the eyes of drivers passing through but straight into the sky, their energy wasted” (Bogard, 5).

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put somethings behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him… In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them” (Walden, 351-352).

In my policy/engineering studies class we have been discussing environmental policy. For class on Thursday Professor Nicodemus asked that we watch two short TED talks about environmental issues. The first video was about Colony Collapse Disorder and the other was about the destruction of the Earth’s oceans.

Both videos were extremely fascinating but the video “A Plea for Bees” brought up some points that specifically related to this class. (Check out the link here: http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_vanengelsdorp_a_plea_for_bees ) The presenter, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, talked a lot about CCD. It is extremely expensive to reproduce these colonies year after year but if this continues to happen our pollinators will be no longer. I think that it is often forgotten how important bees are. Bees pollinate the plants that produce many of our foods and they keep ecosystems thriving by pollinating different plant species. Though they are small and have an annoying sting– bees are extremely valuable.

vanEngelsdorp also discussed Nature Deficit Disorder in this TED talk. He mentions how humans are falling out of touch with nature and are forgetting our connection to it. In Nature Wars Sterna talks about NDD as well (202). He says on page 186: “At the same time, they have distanced themselves from the landscape they inhabit and traverse, and in doing so they have come to treat and mistreat the environment and its natural inhabitants in mindless ways, either unintentionally or with the best of intentions”. In our modern society we no longer have to deal with nature day to day and instead just manage it rather than interact with it. We let nature be an escape rather than a reality of our lives. So although it is great to get away from our problems and “get out into nature” is this only worsening the separation between us and nature? If we aren’t incorporating nature into our daily lives then we are only separating ourselves from it even more.

In the TED talk vanEngelsdorp suggests that to get back to nature we become beekeepers. Beekeeping will not only teach us about bees and pollinating but it will also benefit the bee populations that are fighting CCD. He also suggests that instead of having lawns we have meadows. Meadows will benefit both the bee populations and fight NDD. Having meadows for lawns would help cure us of NDD as real nature would be in our own front and backyards. As we know lawns are so useless and are really just a cultural practice and serve very little purpose. Despite this, one classmate in policy mentioned that her town fines residents if their grass grows past a certain length. With rules like this we are only sinking ourselves deeper into the Nature Deficit Disorder hole that we’ve created. There is no pill to cure our NDD so I say lets start working on those lawn meadows.

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order or beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them” (Thoreau, 351-352).

This passage truly seems a fitting part of the conclusion to Walden. It is oddly inspirational for Thoreau, but I definitely appreciate this. He sums up what he has learned from this experiment and advocates for the pursuing of dreams in order to exist in a greater place with one’s self and within the world. I especially like the final two lines where he mentions castles and their foundations. He states that dreams and works should be of a high value, beyond the reach of the earth, such that one can then further the dreams and continue to support them or provide a foundation.

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any” (Thoreau, 356).

This passage takes all of Thoreau’s experiences and information from his days of simplicity, connecting with the world around him, and presents it as a generally positive outlook on life. He lived a life of simplicity during his time in Walden and felt the true richness of his life, despite the simplicity of it all. He offers a sense of encouragement in this passage to consider that all humans are equals and may justly enjoy life equally. The simple elements of life, like the seasons and sunshine, are the same for everyone. Those that are poorer merely have less belongings to bother with, just as he did. There are many more things of greater importance in life than wealth.

“I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, a make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped keep it open. The surface of the Earth is so soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take the cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now” (Thoreau 351).

This passage stood out to me as he is recommending we avoid the beaten track and avoid falling into the same old rut, but is admitting this too happens to him even during his time at Walden.

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise” (Thoreau 356).

This passage stood out to me as I found the words to be encouraging. So often I think we do take our lives for granted; we find faults where we could not if we would embrace our lives as they are by “meeting it” and “living it”.