As I settled into my forest hideaway, I felt an odd sort of anticipation. I had walked across fallen trees, swung from branches, squished mud between my toes and stared up at the sky until my neck was sore. I had explored every nook and cranny of my plot until it felt like home, and I was ready to listen to whatever nature had to tell me. As I sat on my unzipped sleeping bag and ate a granola bar, I looked at the forest around me, breathed deeply through my nose, and waited for the calm to wash over me. I guess you could say I felt anticipation for everything that wasn’t going to happen. I was excited for the nothingness I expected to feel, nervous that it wouldn’t come, and waiting for something to ignite my brain. Everything in my head had …show more content…
gone according to plan: I had found a divot in the earth just perfect to lie in, with a large boulder as a backrest and a fallen tree as a border. I wanted to feel a punch, of what I didn’t know. Maybe I would feel like the air had been knocked out of me, or like the Santa Ana winds had taken over my mind. Maybe from that nothingness I would feel a strike of imagination and spirituality, but all I felt was my hand striking my skin in a vain attempt to fend off mosquitoes. I wanted to feel invigorated, enlightened, but all I felt was myself. Why do we expect so much from nature?
Why can’t we just accept it and appreciate it as it is? Even in the forest, I thirsted for something to stimulate my mind, looking for something of value in our modern materialistic world. I wanted something tangible, that I could take or see or feel. I wanted something that I could bring back to Putney, either mentally or physically, and be proud of what I found. I wasn’t satisfied with what the world presented me, and at that moment, I was just like Christopher Columbus, and the Mayflower Pilgrims, and anyone else who has come to America looking to get something out of the land. While we all had different reasons for it, none of us were able to appreciate the true beauty of what was in front of us. In the case of Christopher Columbus, all he could see was an endless quest for wealth. And unfortunately for the earth, endless it was. As Barry Lopez …show more content…
said, “The quest for personal possessions was to be, from the outset, a series of raids, irresponsible and criminal, a spree, in which an end to it - the slaves, the timber, the pearls, the fur, the precious ores, and, later, arable land, coal, oil, and iron ore - was never visible, in which an end to it had no meaning.” (9) In their greed and lust, the Spanish pillaged and plundered countless expanses of land, brimming with excitement at the riches they were sure to find. They stripped the landscape of all it’s glory, and once they were finished they left it for dead. However, almost all of the riches that the Spanish found were ones they didn’t know existed. The true wealth of the Americas resided in the land and the cultures the Spanish so readily destroyed. “This, along with the people we ignored, was a wealth that didn’t register until much of it was gone, or until, like the people, it was a tattered, diluted remnant, sequestered on a reservation.” (Lopez, 29) My plot, while not nearly as damaged as the Spanish left their land, had a significant path cut through the heart of it. It didn’t seem unnatural to me, but maybe that’s because as humans, when are we really exposed to truly untouched nature? Despite conservation efforts, not much has changed today in the way we treat the world. We are still exploiting what little is left of our earth, from the last drop of oil to the forests used in the paper I give to you today. We are still searching for our once-promised American wealth, and in doing so we fail to see the dwindling wonders of the natural world. As Barry Lopez beautifully stated, “We see a continuance in the present of this brutal, avaricious behavior, a profound abuse of the place during the course of centuries of demand for material wealth. We need only look for verification at the adic-burned forests of New Hampshire, at the cauterized soils of Iowa, or at the collapse of the San Joaquin Valley into caverns emptied of their fossil waters.” (11) I rummaged through my backpack looking for my remaining granola bar, and I realized that I forgot to take my glasses out of my backpack.
I have mild near-sighted vision, and have trouble seeing far away things on the board in class. I hadn’t worn them anywhere but the classroom, so I took them out of the case and slid them onto my nose. That’s when it hit me. I could see every individual leaf, and the forest bounced into clarity. The ground sparkled, the leaves twinkled even in the dull sunlight. I was no longer restless or bored. I just sat there and stared at the trees, stared at the subtle cracks in the bark and the moss crawling up the rocks and the veins on the undersides of leaves. Everything was crisp, clear, bold, and truly beautiful. I took my glasses off, only for a moment. The landscape returned to it’s previous state, and I didn’t like what I saw. I instantly put my glasses back on. I didn’t want to let that image die, I wanted to just sit and stare and breathe.
Some could argue that my mild-prescription glasses is all it took for me to see the forest differently. You could call it cliché, or unreal, or the kind of thing that only happens in movies, but I promise that in that time something changed in my mind as well. When I went into the forest, I was expecting to find something great. There was no heavenly vision, and no profound moment of spirituality, but I realized that I didn’t need one. What I realized, is that the forest itself is great. All that time I expected
to get something from nature, when really what I got was nature itself.
Some explorers were not looking for land to claim, but faster routes. Columbus went exploring trying to find a faster way to Asia/India for spice trading. The reason for this was because his country was receiving Asian Spices from Muslims(Document 3). In order to get the spices from the Muslims, high prices had to be paid since it was exchanged from person to person. Columbus went sailing and found an area that had inhabitants who looked like people he has never seen before which he assumed were Indians. Columbus saw they had foods he never had before and he started trading with them. He brought over foods such as the Irish Potato, Florida Oranges, Colombian Coffee, and French Vanilla Ice cream, for trading purposes(Document 6). All of those
In the “Impoverishment of Sightseeing”, John Daniel seeks to inspire readers to experience nature beyond observation. Daniel clearly differentiates between the minute appreciation received from sightseeing, and the aweing admiration you can feel if you engulf yourself in nature. Through sharing his personal experiences and scholarly analysis, Daniel demonstrates the importance of being vulnerable to the environment that is necessary for comprehensively understand nature. He argues by allowing ourselves to be naked to nature, one can understand how the natural World has the power to limit our existence.
Some of the problems when studying history are the texts and documents that have been discovered are only from perspective. Furthermore, on occasion that one perspective is all there may be for historians to study. A good example of this textual imbalance can be found from the texts about the discovery of the New World; more specifically, the letters of Christopher Columbus and Pêro Vaz de Caminha during their voyages to the New World. Plenty of the text from this time is written from the perspective of the Europeans, as the Indigenous population did not have any written text. What this means is that it provided only one perspective, which can drastically hinder how history is interpreted. Columbus’s letter of his first voyage to the Caribbean
There is a serene moment when reading John Muir “A Windstorm in the forests,” that rushed through me. Which can only be described as a rush of emotions that one might face when returning home after traveling for so long. I feel that this response is so far harder to write than I could have imagined it to be because the forest Muir is describing within his story, within the Sierra Nevada is one that I grew up with. The same ones that I spent my summers and winter breaks at, I feel a slight struggle when trying to describe my response because I didn’t realize how much I miss all of that and how many of my memories are surrounded by that forest. Reading Muir story brought back the images of seeing stretches of land covered in an endless amount
Christopher Columbus is a mythical hero or in other words, not a true hero. The story of Christopher Columbus is part of the many myths of Western civilization. Also the story of Christopher Columbus represents the power of those that are privileged and in most cases white European men that have written this mythical history. Zinn (2009 exposes the truth about Columbus through eyes of the people who were there when he had arrived which were the Native Indians (p.481). Columbus had kept a personal journal for his voyage to describe the people and the journey. What was evident throughout his journal was the Native Americans were very nice, gentle and kind hearted people (Zinn, 2009, 481). As Zinn suggests Columbus spoke of the Native Americans as” they are the best people in the world and
It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory voyage from King John II of Portugal, but he was refused. In 1485, Columbus took his son Diego and went to Spain to get some help.
Once upon a time, there was a peaceful and resourceful land inhabited by a people called the Arawaks. In these lands were gold, food, and more importantly, tranquility. Although the Arawaks dressed stark naked, they wore gold earrings. They lived on agriculture and livestock. These people lived in the Bahamas Island and behaved very similar to the Indians on the mainland-America. These people could rightly be called Native Americans/Indians. However primitive these people were, they were very organized.
In our personal lives we consider our past forgotten, however in our history everyone affects how they see themselves. "history repeats itself " is gradually long time we know manipulated and deceived us the wrong information, books, learning in school, the "biased" report before the newspaper, radio and television. Let us move on and we just solemn pray for that will prosper in our country. I noticed that there have been distortions in our history. It’s sad because it seems like we have forgotten the sacrifices of those who died during the time of dictatorship. This tragedy cannot continue. We should stand up for someone’s rights today. Times have changed. More sooner than later, they will take power into their hands by all and whatever
Everyone knows the saying Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. However, there is a lot more to Christopher Columbus than what everyone was taught in elementary school through high school. Columbus is thought to be a hero, but just being classified as a hero is a fallacy. Several works including Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies and The Lies my Teacher Told Me have been published about the real Christopher Columbus and his legacy.
I prepared myself for the upcoming adventurous day. I set out along a less-traveled path through the woods leading to the shore. I could hear every rustle of the newly fallen leaves covering the ground. The brown ground signaled the changing of seasons and nature's way of preparing for the long winter ahead. Soon these leaves would be covered with a thick layer of snow. The leaves still clinging to the trees above displayed a brilliant array of color, simultaneously showing the differences of each and the beauty of the entire forest.
The time spent there became more about meeting family friends and going to dinners. Almost four years passed before I returned to the memory of getting lost in those woods. It was a week before the start to my junior year of high school, and I was visiting my grandparents in Virginia. One morning, after a very early breakfast and a promise to return promptly, I walked outside toward the woods. I walked aimlessly, remembering the similar trips I used to make in the forest upstate. I saw a young kid, eager to dirty his hands with exploration of the tangible world. I was older now, and my summer had been spent exploring a possible career path by interning at a financial services firm. A sudden thought crept slowly into my mind, piecing itself together before my
In the beginning of this story, one expects for the characters to follow the concepts that they represent. This story displays one man's journey to leave his home and comfort zone in order to fully explore his curiosity. He goes off into a forest and undergoes a life changing experience there. He encounters three different things that set him on the path to the journey of knowledge. This forest was symbolic of an assessment of strength, bravery, and survival. It took determination to survive in the forest and the young person entering into it would not emerge the same. Conversely, this story is more representative than realistic and the peril is of the character. This story is more of a vision or conscious daydream th...
We slowly crept around the corner, finally sneaking a peek at our cabin. As I hopped out of the front seat of the truck, a sharp sense of loneliness came over me. I looked around and saw nothing but the leaves on the trees glittering from the constant blowing wind. Catching myself standing staring around me at all the beautiful trees, I noticed that the trees have not changed at all, but still stand tall and as close as usual. I realized that the trees surrounding the cabin are similar to the being of my family: the feelings of never being parted when were all together staying at our cabin.
It’s a beautiful morning, as my group of friends and I wake up, we hear the pounding and the thrashing of the water slamming on the moss covered granite rock, I go down the eroded leaf covered pathway to fetch water just like I would do every morning, the sun had just begun to rise, the mixture of scarlet red, orange, and a bleach-like yellow beaming against the hurried water of the river that led into the waterfall shone like flakes of gold floating on top of the whitening water. The serene environment of the surrounding rocks overlooking the waterfall, the ambience of water clashing against the granite, and the aroma of the white pine filling the forest is an awe inspiring experience to all who dare make their way down the narrow and lengthy
The sunless sky covered the woods over the treetops which created a canopy over my head. The crimson and auburn foliage was a magnificent sight, as this was the season known as Fall. There was a gentle breeze, creating the single sound of rustling leaves. The leaves appeared as though they were dying to fall out of the tree and join their companions on the forest floor. Together with pine needles and other flora the leaves formed a thick springy carpet for me to walk upon.