Wednesday, September 2, 2009

...to when end is Nature?

In theory, I love Emerson. Having read only snippets of his wisdom in clichéd quotes on senior pages, as with most things, my expectations of this prolific writer were interestingly misplaced. I was astounded. Intellectual and tree hugging, his words flowed fluidly into my consciousness, insinuating a deep, wholesome contentedness. I became at peace when introduced to the notion that philosophers can provide us our solutions. Then I hit a snag, a metaphorical road block on the highway of his musings. "To what end is nature?" Funny that your first assignment pertains specifically to the one element I found awry in his sampling. It seemed ridiculously moot to ask such a question when all previous statements of his evoked a clear answer; Nature is everything. It not only contains, encompasses, births, breathes & creates all that we know; it is inside all that we know. It's not simply an intrinsic character that helps compose the whole. It is blended seamlessly with all the components. It is the whole and every ensuing part.
Despite our unquenchable need to, humans cannot remove any part of our existence from Nature. We certainly can throw our most twisted passions toward that separation, but no matter how hard we strain away, she pulls us back; with violent vehemence or otherwise. A slippery slope, our tampering. I'm not sure nature has a purpose, not sure she has a role. It seems inherently human to question our surroundings, to assign them some superficial role in our sadly superficial lives, but she is much more profound than that. The vastness of nature is utterly beyond our comprehension. We cannot understand Nature's importance, her ultimate end, but we feel whole and proactive when we feel that unquestionable oneness with her. That oneness only comes when we shed our expectations and biases and identities. Then we know we will never understand, but we're nonetheless happy.

1 comment:

  1. I've already responded to an earlier draft of this, so I'll limit my comments here to thanking you for the opportunity to read again this lovely response! Great job on this.

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