Since my freshman year here at UNT I have been a part of the Club Tennis Team, and we as a group try to participate in as many community service projects as time will allow for us to. We like to try to give back to the community in any way we can, not only because everybody should try to do their part to contribute, but also because it is a way for the team to bond and spend time together while doing a selfless act for someone else. Recently the team took on a project in which we decided to participate in cleaning up a local water source and the land around it. It was a miserable day outside, wet, cold, and just overall nasty, but we made a commitment and we had to stick to it, so at 8AM we all got into our cars and drove to a remote area on the outskirts of Denton County that I had never even seen before. When we pulled up, we drove into what looked like a small clearing, and we all got out of our vehicles, trash bags and gloves in hand, and got to work. We had to hike a ways to get to the area that was the worst polluted, and once we got there it was a never ending supply of garbage. I had never seen so much waste in my life. I believe we ended up collecting over 50 trash bags full of garbage, and if it hadn’t started raining so hard I’m sure we would have collected more. Going into the project I wanted to get a sense of unity within my team, and also feel like I had accomplished something that really helped someone other than just myself. I find that as I am getting older it is important to remind myself that I have to think of others just as much, if not more than I think of myself, because in my opinion a person who puts others before themselves is a well rounded individual. Volunteering in my opinion builds character within a person, because it humbles them and makes them see that although things may not be that bad in their lives, or their families or their backyards that for some, that isn’t the case.
While making my way through bushes and thorns and climbing over fallen trees, I realized that I was somewhat out of my element. Although to a much lesser degree, I think that this may be how Plumwood felt as she was canoeing through the Kakadu’s paperbark wetlands. At first she didn’t feel as if she was out of place at all, because like many people feel today, they are at the top of the food chain and in some ways feel they are invincible. Plumwood was soon to realize this was not the case, just as my friend Eric who was my trash pick-up buddy during our adventure, would also realize. Eric and I were just crawling deeper and deeper into the wooded parts of the path, when we saw a tree who’s branches had grown over and were hanging onto the ground, looking much like a tangled mess of vines. However, inside of these vines was an enormous amount of litter. So, Eric and I being the brave souls that we are, decided to try our luck and try to climb within the tangled mess and retrieve as much of the trash as we could. In order for us to get to the underside of the tree we had to climb over a log that was in our way, and as we did Eric stepped on it, and stood there for a second catching his breath. In just a few seconds we would realize how bad of an idea this was, because within moments there were thousands of fire ants crawling all up his legs and biting him viciously. As the first few ants bit Eric he was stunned! He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, and his initial reaction was to shout, and start patting his legs trying to get them off, but the ants territory had already been invaded, and they were in survival mode, so getting them all off was nearly impossible. Creatures out in the wild do not see humans as a source of food, and in my opinion do not attack them simply because they want to. For the most part, unless under stressful situations in which there is a shortage of food or some other extenuating circumstances such as the animal is confused, I think animals only attack humans if they feel threatened. Which is more than likely how the crocodile that attacked Plumwood felt, and also how the fire ants felt that attacked my friend, Eric. In the case of Plumwood, it is possible that the crocodile was confused by the shadow of the canoe. Sharks tend to mistake surfers as sea turtles or seals, so crocodiles may also have that same mentality in which they see something that resembles food and go for it! Plumwood makes the statement as her canoe is under attack that “For the first time, it came to me fully that I was prey.” I believe this is many people response when they are suddenly “under attack” by a creature that they ordinarily felt was of no threat to them. Eric’s encounter with the fire ants was definitely a lesson for me that I need to watch what I am doing when trespassing in nature.
As I was walking through the wooded paths I kept thinking about how much I wish we had more areas like this one. Not areas polluted with trash and waste, but areas that are remote, peaceful, filled with trees and life. Living within Denton, I sometimes feel like I don’t get enough time with nature. Just to look at the trees and be around something other than pavement and buildings. I noticed this even today, as I drove home. Although my home town is only an hour and a half away, it is quite a bit smaller than Denton, and therefore isn’t nearly as developed. I was driving through town while home and noticed how many more trees there were than if I were to be just driving around in Denton. I know that there are plenty of places in Denton where there are still woodsy areas and paths through the woods, but with my routine of driving to school, and work, and to the store I tend to not see them as frequently as I would like to. As I think all of this I like to reflect on Mills article in which he discusses nature as having three different meanings. My favorite of which is when he says, “Nature does not stand for what is, but what ought to be;” I definitely think that as a community we need to take this statement into consideration more often. I know that living in the society that we live in today with the cultures that we have developed it would be impossible to stop producing and developing, but wouldn’t it be nice? Sometimes I think it would be. Just to live with the basics and live off of nature and in nature. This clearly isn’t a realistic thought, but it is a peaceful one, and I find myself feeling comfort in thinking about living this way. That is until my phone goes off or the microwave beeps and I’m snapped back to reality.
“Man is biologically predestined to construct and to inhabit a world with others.
This world becomes for him the dominant and definitive reality. Its limits are set
by nature, but once constructed, this world acts back upon nature. In the dialectic
between nature and the socially constructed world the human organism itself is
transformed. In this same dialectic man produces reality and therefore produces
himself.”
This paragraph has been taken from Peterson’s Social Construct of Nature and I wanted to include it because I find it to have a very interesting meaning. Although my interpretation of it may be completely off, I believe in a way Peterson is saying that although man is meant to live with others, we tend to take what is given to us and make it our own and somewhat dominate it, much like we have with nature. Peterson says, “Its limits are set by nature, but once constructed, this world acts back upon nature.” This to me is saying that humans are restrained by nature, but rather than simply backing off we mold nature into what we want it to be and construct our own reality. Luckily the area that myself and my tennis team helped to clean up hadn’t been touched yet by the harsh hand of man, but I’m sure it won’t be long before it is being developed on. While I was volunteering I was also taking my time to kind of explore and look around. Nature is quite the interesting place to be. You can’t go 5 minutes without hearing some sort of rustle in the bushes or seeing a butterfly. It really is so full of life! It’s almost frightening if you really think about it.
I went into this project just looking to “do my part” and “give back” but I came out of it with a new respect for nature that I didn’t expect to have. I’ve always been very outdoorsy but when you see something that you love so much being treated so badly it really gets to you. I never realized that things could get that bad, and I’m positive that I haven’t even seen the worst of things. What I experienced was just a glimpse into what is all around us. After this project was over, I found myself wanting to devote more time to cleaning up, or at least do what I could to pick up a candy wrapper while walking to class. Nature is a beautiful place, and should be treated with respect, which is what I intend to do from this day forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment