Final Journal: Reflection

Saturday June 3, 2017

I’d like to preface this reflection by stating my appreciation for Tim Billo and his assistants for their respective fervors for natural history and the environment. The structure and content of this class never once bored me. Even the more difficult assignments felt like all the work put into them was rewarded with lasting fulfilment and/or an acquisition of interesting knowledge. It’s unlikely I’ll feel as happy and satisfied about the body of knowledge I gain from a single class as I do with this one. I’ve tried to label each question in my answers, but I kind of answered all of them as a single prompt.

Questions 1&3

My perception of my observation site has changed from being an essentially arbitrary part of a public park to a site that I feel emotionally invested in. After spending many hours of solitude studying and appreciating every inch of the area, it began to feel like a sanctuary away from my life as a citizen and like a place where I could experience nature as a part of it, rather than as an observer from beyond it. I grew progressively more attached to the site, and as summer arrived the site seemingly became more welcoming to me: the temperature rose to a comfortable level, the leaves on the trees cast an inviting shade, and the landscape became increasingly Edenic as the vegetation grew and sprawled. Interacting with the birds and plants felt silly (and one-sided) at times, but even so I felt a bond between them and I that gave me solace and comfort. Learning their names and behaviors gave me a sense of familiarity both in an observational sense and a sentimental one.

The sentimentality I have for the site evolved into a feeling of protectiveness for it. Other people coming to my part of the park often seemed hostile or disrespectful to the nature and its serenity. Tons of people just came to smoke various substances and drink, often leaving their trash out of laziness. Others, often families, were simply obnoxious and unreasonably loud likely because they thought there was no one around. People have every right to go to the park and do whatever their please, but I couldn’t help feeling peeved about the self-absorbed nature of just about every conversation I overheard.

Only once was I genuinely angered at others’ actions. The trail down to my site is incredibly prone to erosion and every step you take on it will inevitably send sand streaming down the trail. So, I try my best to erode as little as possible so that the bluff maintains its structure and the vegetation living there remain founded. On a recent visit, I saw a couple on a particularly erosion prone section of the path purposefully shoveling sand down the slope to make a bench where they could sit, drink, and listen to music. It frustrated me that they would catalyze an irreversible process that is slowly degrading the landscape and its habitats. Yes, one could argue that the site isn’t very natural to begin with, as it had been a fort previously, but I feel we should try to impact the land as little as possible and let natural, non-human processes shape the land.

To intimately know a natural place is to be familiar with that place, know its past, and recognize the variety of cycles that it goes through. Repetitive, careful observation of a single place reveals the nature and intricacies of these cycles, and allows the building of a close relationship with the site. Think of it like a home: you know your way around it and have a mental map of its layout and details. When something is off, like the couch or an appliance is out of place, you notice it as something that isn’t quite in order. In nature, a similar thing occurs but the changes are natural and usually predictable. It is valuable to do close observation of a site such as a city park, as it allows me to notice minute differences from visit to visit, whereas with travels across the region to more awe-inspiring places, I feel I develop a different kind of appreciation of the nature. I would describe this appreciation as one that regards the immense scale of the world and its absurd geological, climatic, and biological diversity. Instead of acknowledging the differences over time of a single area, you’re able to see the drastic general differences between to areas.

2.

As my site lies on the coast and looks across the Puget Sound, I am often thinking about the region in a broad sense rather than just the local area around my site. My understanding of the region, particularly of its geological history and climate, has greatly enhanced my sense of the area and my oneness with it. Being Seattle-born, I have had a strong spiritual connection with and appreciation for the area for as long as I can remember. However, I realize how shallow that connection truly was before I learned the history and contemporary essentials that define the region. Now, as I walk through the region and can recognize most of the plants and animals, I feel like the land that I come from is speaking to me and we are having a silent acknowledgement of each other as dwellers of the same land. As I ride my bike around Seattle, I imagine the glacier plowing through the region creating the drumlins that I’m so familiar with (and am grateful for, as they let me speed down them really fast!). I can orient myself immediately at the sight of any mountain, recognizing those that may explode one day. From the weather, I can imagine the view from space of air currents and the moisture that they might be carrying. I honestly feel I’ve become a steward of this land, that in claiming I’m native to this land is justified, and that I have a personal responsibility to preserve the land and educate others of its majesty. Let me clarify that I obviously am not part of a First Nation culture, but that as an organism who began existing here without any choice in the matter, this place is integral to who I am and I am eternally bound and indebted to it. I have an immense reverence for the First Nation cultures and their customs, as they revered the nature on which they depended and coexisted with so spiritually and sustainably. Furthermore, I have studied the actions of Europeans in the area and feel nothing less than complete disgust at their ability to dehumanize and conquer without any regard for human life and natural beauty; I feel disgusted to have any innate (racial) associations with them that define me despite the lack of choice when it comes to race. Probably best to avoid calling myself native in any sense, but regardless, since the beginning of the quarter I feel I’ve transitioned from a naïve inhabitant of the area to a knowledgeable, genuine Seattleite.

4.

In a broad sense, the most important personal outcome of this class would be that—my transitioning into somebody who knows the about the natural world around him and that he is from. This transition has galvanized the bond with the place I call home, and it feels inexplicably special. However, this outcome only came about due to other valuable skills I learned along the way. One of these is the ability to carefully observe organisms and understand where and what distinguishable attributes might be. In a way, I’ve learned to run plants and animals through a mental dichotomous key to identify them as best as I can. In doing this, I’ve gained an appreciation of the immense diversity of life that surrounds me daily, a diversity that before I was nearly completely oblivious to. Also, this class has revitalized a love of exploring that I hadn’t experienced since childhood. I would spend hours upon hours at Discovery aimlessly following whatever struck my interest at that moment. I realized that when I did this and paid close attention, there was an absurd number of amazing things occurring all around. Often my phone would die and it would just be me among the natural world, and although it got lonely, it was never boring. That brings me to another outcome—the ability to keep myself entertained by nature despite being solitary for hours. The last outcome that I’ve realized hasn’t really been of any use so far, but I’ve gained a large body of knowledge about the various uses for plants. Lost in the wilderness of the Puget Sound region, I could survive off berries and fiddlesticks, comfortably wipe my ass with thimbleberry, and (perhaps if I gain the craftiness) create things out of redcedar and burn its wood for efficient, non-smoky heat. Who knows, maybe one day what I’ve learned from Tim Billo will save my life.

5.

Perhaps my perception of humans and their place in nature hasn’t changed, but it has certainly become more thoroughly defined. In modern society, I feel that people are given two choices: participate as a natural being and respect the world as the almighty, ancient entity that gave birth to life, or choose to surround yourself in human built environments and society to isolate yourself from just about all evidence of genuine Earth. Most older, and especially Native cultures ‘chose’ the former, and lived in harmony with nature, using its resources to benefit them as members within it. But today, I can imagine how many people simply live in their homes, leaving only to transport to another abode to perform some task that likely harms nature, probably getting mad at the rain on the way. There’s no debate about whether humans are natural, but if humans try the best they can to abandon any respect and relationship with the untouched world then they have created a divide between themselves and nature, and are thus somewhat unnatural. I suppose everyone is unnatural to an extent: I live in a concrete tower that I could theoretically never leave. However, because I leave and appreciate nature entertain myself among it I consider myself a part of it—like an ancient family friend of my ancestors. But, I’m definitely an outdoor person, as my favorite things to do are hike, climb, and exercise outside, meanwhile I know people that despise such things and would rather be reading, gaming, and socializing in the structures created for them. Essentially, I think humans are natural when they are experiencing and appreciating nature, and they are not when they are dividing themselves from it or actively working to render it unnatural for their comfortability. It’s an interesting discussion topic no answer that has completely satisfied me, and I hope to develop a clearer explanation in the future.