I read this essay last month: When Writing About John Muir, I Had to See What He Saw by Donald Worster, December 1, 2008, History News Network. Worster's book, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, looks very interesting, but I was particularly struck by this historian's new interest in "nature" (he seems to mean "biological nature," with less excitement about chemistry and physics). I liked this observation:
Writing Muir's biography has given me more insight into this extraordinary man and his times. But getting away from my keyboard and file folders in order to see the places that he explored has been eye opening and soul fulfilling. I have learned more about botany, his favorite subject. Like him, I have fallen in love with trees, tree ferns, grasses, wildflowers, sedges, brambles, cacti--all those plants that turn solar radiation into the food that keeps us and a few million other species alive, through cold and heat, rain and drought. If we were a nation of botanists, all of us in love with plants as Muir was, we would be better environmental citizens. More knowledgeable and caring about the green world, we could survive almost anything.
A nation of botanists--it would certainly be Utopia!
2 comments:
A nation of botanists... dream on! I have yet to meet another amateur botanist here in Hannibal, a Mississippi River town with 18,000 residents. Vegetative diversity and taxonomy just doesn't attract much interest these days.
Kids are much more likely to be interested in animals than plants, and if gardening or forestry or some other practical pursuit doesn't suck them in to the Plant Kingdom they are unlikely to encounter the joys of botany. (And botanists....in every University where I've worked, the botanists are always the most fun. I wish I'd been one.)
Post a Comment