It seems appropriate for an author to begin a chapter about Canada geese while monks sing vespers (English translation of “Bring me back home”) to a congregation of people. Geese are perhaps the most renowned face of migratory birds. Across the United States before the winter season, the geese can be found in families eating and stopping along the way to their sojourn to southern and warmer climates.

Canada geese are large and noisy birds. Their wingspan can reach more than six feet and adults can weigh up to 14 pounds. Besides their loud honking when flying in the V-shaped formation overhead, their presence is marked after they leave. In fields around my house, most memorably when I would play fall baseball in early high school, their droppings littered whatever open area they previously occupied. Often, I would run out to my position in the field while trying to avoid geese droppings. At the same time, Terry Tempest William recognizes an aspect of the geese that reflects the complete opposite of my observation of them. Unlike us, Williams explains “In the night journeys of Canada geese, it is the silence that propels them” (Williams 193). I got the sense that Williams was trying to connect the activity of Canada geese with a part of us that is either pushed aside or not entirely realized. She includes the Thomas Merton writing, “Silence is the strength of our interior life…If we fill our lives with silence, then we will live in hope”. Although we are not able to pinpoint the beginning of silence, Canada geese and Merton suggest that life is lived when we look anyways.

It did’t really hit me until we were on the car ride to his farm, that I realized we were visiting the author of a book we are currently reading in class, nonetheless his farm in located a short drive from the campus. A sense of excitement and slight nervousness came over me. I was hoping that I would refrain from engaging in any mannerisms that would possibly offend an Amish person, given that I know so little about them and their culture. Then, I wondered if the clothing I was wearing would be offensive or inappropriate in some way.

As soon as I saw who David was, that feeling of anxiousness quickly disintegrated. When he began to speak, his tone was soft and gentle, full of welcomeness. Another thing that allowed me to let go of nervousness was when I stepped outside of the car and looked around, the way the house and the barn were set in context with the driveway immediately reminded me of how one of my good friend, Patrick’s farm house and barn were arranged. My mind began to fill with memories, like when I would step out of my parents’ car onto their driveway and hearing Patrick’s dad yell, “Get some gloves on Matt!” referring to how I was about to be put to work lifting hay bales before it was time to play.

I regret basing my anxiousness on the fear of the unknown. Looking at this trip in hindsight, it was entirely a learning experience. Perhaps most important, I walked away from this visit with a mindset I never thought I would have had previous to the trip. Amish culture may have some features to it that the world should consider, looking towards sustainability and our future on planet Earth. I was amazed by how self-sufficient his farm left him as far as food goes, and even the profits he is able to make. The thing that really stuck with me though is the openness to knowledge, culture, and modernity that Kline endorses while maintaining the ability to use these things as a means to achieve something at the end of the day. Kline’s view on Amish culture to me, seems built on the absence of greed, low impact on the world in just about every way, and balancing tradition with prosperity.

 

The writings of Bill McKibben have had a particularly profound effect on me. I hesitate to label his impact on me as either positive or negative due to how I agree and am moved by his sentiments, but at the same time, some of his writings have complicated my thoughts. In some cases, reading him has completely changed the way I think about the nature of us and nature for the worse.

I have read and encountered McKibben in three classes so far here at Wooster. In my FYS, Human Impact on the Environment/Facing the Anthropocene, I was first introduced to his concepts and beliefs. His website and push for staying below 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and discussion on the Paris Agreement’s target of 2 degrees celsius have both motivated to look into Environmental Studies and possibly looking into Environmental Politics as a career path.

In this class, while reading The End of Nature, my philosophy the nature of humans interacting with all of nature was significantly impacted. I did not realize the significance of the title of this book until I read this passage, “Now that we have changed the most basic forces around us, the noise of that chain saw will always be in the woods”(40). Here McKibben is referring to the faint noise of a chainsaw he can hear while walking in the woods behind his house. In providing this image, he states that “The sound of the chain saw doesn’t blot out all the noises of the forest or drive the animals away, but it does drive away the feeling that you are in another, separate, timeless, wild sphere” (40). This is troubling for me because I consider the area that I live in to be fairly natural. My house is engulfed in a canopy of deciduous and coniferous trees, a small stream cuts a ravine through my front yard, most Sunday mornings I awaken to the sound of birds rather than any alarm. But while I sit on a couch on my front porch and read, or I step outside to take my dog for a walk, there is always some industrial hum of a lawnmower off in the distance, or there is that chain saw that McKibben described. After reading The End of Nature, I tune in to this unlike I did before. Perhaps I would have recognized there is a sound of something coming from somewhere. But more likely, that lawnmower was just a filler, some sort of unrecognized white noise. Now when I hear those sounds, I am reminded that, “The world outdoors will mean much the same as the world indoors, the hill the same thing as the house” (40).

At Brown’s Bog, I experienced two different nature sites. Or so it seemed. The short stroll across the boardwalk opened me up to a hidden cove of history. The bog itself was very small and I was taken by surprise at first by how the majority of the opening was dominated by plant life.

During the walk to the bog, noticed the changes in the boardwalk. Maybe halfway to the bog, the makeup of the boardwalk shifted to lighter brown new wood. When I began to take notice of this, I saw on the right edge of the boardwalk there were some pieces of wood scattered on the forest floor. I was immediately brought back to the feelings I experienced at Johnson’s woods. But I remembered our class conversations on my previous blog entry and pushed my feelings of unnaturalness aside, leaving myself open to experience.

On the second part of our sojourn, I had to remember that I was at a place called Brown’s Bog. As soon as the ground stopped feeling rubbery and the incline started to become slightly cumbersome, my setting completely changing from standing on the boardwalk in the warm sun.

While the changes in scenery and physical condition perpetually shifted my perspective, one lens of focus remained the entire time. I had issues escaping into nature on this excursion. While we stood on the boardwalk by the bog, every so often I would hear the call of a rooster. This was an immediate reminder of why the bog had a top layer of algae bloom and why the forest continues to close in on the bog.

To my surprise, there was a substantial difference between the idea I had of what Johnson’s woods would be and what I discovered it to be. On the other hand, the seeming infinite spread of corn fields on the bus ride there was to be expected. I was expecting the old growth forest to be untouched by man, or at least minimally maintained. As we approached the entrance I saw there was a boardwalk trail, which I learned later loops throughout the entire forest. I recognize this encourages visitors to stay on the path, leaving the forest to develop naturally, but I did not particularly enjoy the aesthetic of it. As I was walking along I encountered sections where the boardwalk seemed to plow through the trees, barraging a path of human intrusion. Logs lay next to the boardwalk; no, they were placed next to the boardwalk in sections of the forest. It was disappointing to see so many of the mighty maple and oak on their way out. Some of them were standing skeletons, adding an eerie element to the canopy when I would glance up. There were a few great stumps which were mirrored on the ground by its former trunk, another tell-tale sign of humans catering the natural world towards accessibility and convenience. The forest had a variety of sections in it: from bogs, to deep green flowered marsh, to the thick woods and massive trees dating back to the age of the Pilgrims. I enjoyed my venture into a cultivated garden. As I neared the road, there was a blatant reminder that I was surrounded by corn fields in Ohio, the odor of manure. I was treated to pleasant surprises on Monday, but I have to say Johnson’s foods is far from Earth’s nature.

When Global Climate Change or Global Warming is brought up, hotter days year-round are not guaranteed. Climate around the world, which is steadily becoming more human-induced than natural and cyclical, is becoming less and less predictable by the day. Close to home, on a wooded ridge above a valley south of Buffalo New York, this requires skiers such as myself to not take large snowfalls and crisp winter days for granted. I live on the other side the valley, a minute or two from just under 1000 skiable acres. For the last eight years or so the winters have become increasingly mild and less snowy, or at least fluctuant. It has proven harmful to the economy of my small town, which is dependent a snowy and busy ski season. The resort has had to adapt to the conditions by opening up the trails to motocross in the summer. Warmer weather sounds almost too convenient in this case. This is not an issue we can reverse quickly. But in order for us sustain the most favorable climate conditions, we are faced with a choice. Move towards forming a more harmonious lifestyle with nature as all other animals on earth do, or find a way to engineer our way out of this. Or sustain our existence as the ski resort does by adapting, using the warmer weather to its advantage.