The Spring Mountains ECHO

Wildness and Wilderness

Bob Maichle

Those that seek to think like a mountain can be diverted from that noble path by trying to get back to Nature. Many so-called environmentalists have sought to separate humans from the natural world. Humans, as sentient beings, have the responsibility of maintaining a land ethic but humans are part of, not detached from, Nature. There is real danger in thinking otherwise.

Sadly, those that look only to wildness and wilderness fail to understand the concept of thinking like a mountain. Henry Thoreau's famous dictum that "...in wildness is the salvation of the earth" does not exclude humankind, rather it embraces the unity of, including man, this world. Walden Pond was an ecological place of wildness where Thoreau, as a man, found unity with, not separation from what we call Nature. The wildness of Walden Pond included an active railroad a couple hundred meters away and a town just down the well-traveled road that passed adjacent to the pond.

Wisdom can often be gleamed from other cultures and in the over 500 known languages of Indigenous Peoples of North America there is not a word for Nature. These cultures were one with their world, not somehow detached as many of our culture view humankind. Among these cultures there is almost a universal respect for the land and the resources provided by the land. Native Americans name themselves by the land the occupied. These peoples of the land had no concept of a Natural world detached from humankind. Understanding can be obtained in your backyard, a ditch by the side of a road, or the solitude and wildness of the mountain. We don't need to get back to Nature because we are part of Nature, wherever we are. While wildness and wilderness may not have a permanent presence of man, humankind is a component of these lands just as much as any urban environment.

Those that think like a mountain will realize that whether it is riding the bus to work, pondering the wildness of Walden Pond or hiking the designated Wilderness of the Spring Mountains, humans are a component of the land. Humankind is sentient and as such, has a responsibility to the land. The term land, as used here, is just the complete Natural World which includes humankind. Those who think like a mountain will never lose sight of the fact that humankind, like every form of life is tied to and is an integral part of the land.