The Nature Of Nature

                                       The Nature of Nature

                             “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” 
                                       ― Gary Snyder

If we look deeply into what it is to be human, we will see that we are fundamentally part of nature. This idea has been used so much that we have become numb and have lost a visceral feeling of what it is to be part of nature, so I am intending to help us reconnect with that primal feeling which embeds us within a larger ecological, whole system.

So the first step is to realize we are complete individual organisms, but also incomplete parts of larger organisms or systems. Just as neutrinos, quarks, protons, neutrons, electrons, atoms, molecules, cells, organs, and tissues are complete wholes at their own discrete level, but are also incomplete parts of larger wholes/systems within our own body.

At the most basic level, the stuff that we are made of is the same stuff that everything else is made of, that is to say the elements from the periodic table. We are organic life, but we also are made of inorganic elements that come from stars, this includes; hydrogen, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, silver, gold, etc.

Not all organic compounds are created by living organisms, and living organisms do not only leave behind organic material. A clam's shell, for example, while biotic, does not contain much organic carbon, so may not be considered organic matter in this sense. Conversely, urea is one of many organic compounds that can be synthesized without any biological activity.

This is just to point out that life consists of organic and inorganic compounds. Basic structures in our system are created from various proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates, this is why it is very important when eating, to balance proteins, fats, and carbs proportionally every time you eat, this helps maintain good blood sugar levels which is essential to mental and emotional functioning (see the Zone diet).

                                                            First Steps

Humans are incredibly vulnerable in our early development. In utero, we have a long gestation period in which we become sensitized to every nuance of our mother’s bio-chemical, mental, emotional, and sensory experience. When we are born, we are a breaching whale, expelled from warm, watery, safe environment, to land, air, and complete dependency.

The emotional bonding that takes place during this time will set the tone, tempo, and direction for our life trajectory. We see throughout the mammal kingdom that the emotional bonding we have with others is in lockstep with survival, so this is our first gestalt we have of whether the world is a safe place in which we can trust and risk.

Barnacle geese chicks are often hatched a top 120 meter cliffs to avoid predators. They have to jump off before they can fly and literally bounce down the cliff to be able to find food with their parents. To take that first leap is an incredible risk and many will not survive it. Compare this with human infants beginning to crawl, walk, talk, eat solid food and be toilet trained. We have the same risk potential as the Barnacle geese (survival), but it is not so dramatic (or maybe it is), due to our civilized buffering we have layered onto ourselves.

        

Part of our civilized buffering has been to decrease infant mortality. The infant mortality rate of the world is 49.4/1000 according to the United Nations. That’s 5%, which is very low compared to what it used to be within the last 60 years, and of course in the animal kingdom, it’s more like 40%, so this is one of many benefits of being at the top of the food chain.

The substantial infant mortality decline over the 20th century has been attributed to economic growth, improved nutrition, and new sanitary measures, as well as advances in clinical medicine and access to care. But we should not forget that our essential human nature as a new born, is very fragile and dependent.

                                              Adolescence

In the animal kingdom, adolescence is basically non-existent. This means that once the period of bonding, dependency, play and power struggles with siblings (which is really practice for hunting/mating/protecting), is over, it’s time to prove oneself in the field of hunting.

The parents will have left or taken a back seat to observe and mentor slightly, the skills necessary for survival.

At the beginning of human adolescence, cognitive abilities are dominated by concrete thinking, ego-centrism, and impulsive behavior. In our culture, we are more and more dominated by concrete thinking and the ability to abstract, (which is to make reasonable and rational choices for the future), is greatly impaired. The ability of thinking in larger contexts, thinking of deeper roots, other than just the surface, thinking of broader ramifications and implications of issues, and connecting seemingly dissimilar fields, is becoming less and less valued and demonstrated.

I attribute this to our greater and greater engagement with technology, which is engendering in us an inability to read human emotional cues, and making us dumpsters of mostly useless data.  The ability to engage in abstract reasoning is not highly developed in most young teens, this means they are unable to understand the connection between their behavior and the consequences of their actions.

When cheetahs or wild hunting dogs are left by their parents in the wild, they must learn to cooperatively hunt or they will die. This is a brutal learning curve and initiation, but everything in their life has prepared them (as well as can be expected), for this moment. Many will not be able to pull it off, again the mortality rate is about 40%.

Each year from 1999 to 2006, the annual death rate for U.S. teenagers has averaged 49.5 deaths per 100,000 population (same percentage as world infant mortality- 5%). However, the risk of dying is not distributed evenly among all teenagers. Male teenagers are more likely to die than female teenagers at every single year of age from 12 to 19 years, and older teenagers are at higher risk of dying than younger teenagers. At age 12, for example, the death rate for males (20.2 deaths per 100,000) is 46 percent higher than the rate for females (13.8 deaths per 100,000). At age 19 the death rate for males (135.2 deaths per 100,000) is almost three times the rate for females (46.1 deaths per 100,000).

In primal cultures there are clearly defined rites of passage and initiations of boys ready to enter into adulthood. They go off with the elder males and undergo horrendous rituals, vision quests, scarification, circumcision, dancing, singing, mental/emotional/physical challenges, and nurturing by the male elders. The Maasai tribal elders cut a vein in their arms and pass around a vase in which their blood is collected, this is fed to the young male, and it is viewed symbolically as male milk, for it is only through the ‘feeding’ of the young male by the elders that he can be transformed into a man, ready to take his place among the tribe.

                                                      Home

Bower- 1. A shaded, leafy recess; an arbor. 2. A woman's private chamber in a medieval castle; a boudoir. 3. A rustic cottage; a country retreat.

Finding and making a home is another essential part of nature and human endeavor. A home certainly coincides with mating rituals, and the home is in many ways a nest for raising young and preparing them to leave the nest. In addition to the physical aspects of shelter, a home is an environment that anchors and centers us in our lives. Because we have so many single parents,latch key kids, broken homes, and houses divided, our sense of home is deteriorating.

Like everything else in our modern world, home is becoming a virtual concept, but the deep psychological need for home doesn’t go away just because we distract ourselves and pretend that we have and feel a sense of home. 

The Bower bird is a great example of how deeply embedded a sense of home is in nature. The male goes to great lengths to create a flashy bachelor pad that will impress the inspecting female. In addition to the physical nest, he collects flashy, colorful objects to ornament the nest and give it maximum sex appeal (does this sound familiar?).

                

These objects — usually different among each species — may include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even discarded plastic items, coins, nails, rifle shells, or pieces of glass. The males spend hours arranging this collection. Bowers within a species share a general form but do show significant variation, and the collection of objects reflects the biases of males of each species and its ability to procure items from the habitat, often stealing them from neighboring bowers. Several studies of different species have shown that colors of decorations males use on their bowers match the preferences of females.

Uy and collaborators have shown that mate-searching females commonly visit multiple bowers, often returning to the male several times, watching his elaborate courtship displays and inspecting the quality of the bower and tasting the paint the male has placed on the bower walls. Many females end up selecting the same male, and many under-performing males are left without copulation's. Females mated with top-mating males tend to return to the male the next year and search less.

This all points to our deep, instinctive, and psycho-sexual need to create a sense of home that invites visitation and copulation.

“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” 
                         ―James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room