This week I'm taking a week-long module class at Bethany College. It's been OK, but so far the highlight for me has been that the prof lent me a book that I've been wanting to buy for a while now: "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv. This book talks about "Nature-Deficit Disorder." In this book Louv draws connections between our continuing disconnection with nature and the rise of a variety of things like obesity, attention disorders, and depression.
Below I offer you a paragraph from the first chapter:
"For children, nature comes in many forms. A newborn calf; a pet that lives and dies; a worn path through the woods; a fort nestled in stinging nettles; a damp, mysterious edge of a vacant lot -- whatever shape nature takes, it offers each child an older, larger world separate from parents. Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it. Nature offers healing for a child living in a destructive family or neighbourhood. It serves as a blank slate upon which a child draws and reinterprets the culture's fantasies. Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of confusion. Nature can frighten a child, too, and this fright serves a purpose. In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace" (pg. 1).
What do you think?
4 comments:
So I was watching the special features on the movie Volver, and the interviewer asked the director (Pedro Almodovar) why he thought so many creative people came from La Mancha (a place in Spain where Almodovar is from, and also Miguel de Cervantes) and he said it is because the landscape is so boring that people are forced to project their wild imaginations onto it. A blank canvas of sorts, which I thought was very interesting. So while I don't think that you have to live somewhere boring to be creative, the idea that creativity is nurtured through the consideration of nature? Sure, I'll buy that...
Very interesting... it has definitely piqued my curiosity.
i recently heard about this book....the idea sounds interesting.....i'd love to read it to get the whole picture....and i'd love to hear your comments on it too!
I don't think it should have the word "children" in there as much as "people" because I still find peace in the woods, and tranquility in nature of many forms. It's one of the reasons I love animals so much. They aren't really from "our world" but they are a part of nature and creation and there's something set apart and different about animals that makes me feel at peace when I'm around them. My favorite Saturday activity used to be taking my dog for a couple of hours and walking in Fish Creek Park; where my own piece of nature, Shadow, could run free in the nature of a forest and swim in the creek. I loved it. Saturday was always my favorite day of the week because of that park.
I like this blog; I like your thoughts on it; I think I would like this book. I'd like to hear more.
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