A Family Visit in July

On a weekend in July we were paid a visit by Lee’s family from the Indianapolis area. Her sister, our nieces and nephews, their spouses and kids made up the assemblage.  It’s an event that occurs at best once a year despite it being highly anticipated, especially by the kids, who relish having access to our wild acreage.

I view it not only as a chance to commingle but for the opportunity to expose young minds to their connection with the natural world, to challenge their phobias toward spiders and snakes, to talk about butterflies, the compost pile, the dried exoskeleton of a dragonfly nymph hanging from the dock.

But before they can focus on the lessons of the day there is energy to burn. A few laps around the pond manning the oars of the jon boat is a start.  Shortly after casting off, an arachnid emerges from under the seat, and suddenly the boat lists starboard as a squealing mass of juveniles wrangle to put distance between them and the spider. “Don’t worry about it”, I say. “It’s a daddy long legs.  It’s a good spider, enjoying the ride like you are. Now focus on the oars”.

Next comes swimming. I explain that the mud on the pond bottom isn’t gross, it’s  just soft wet soil. “It feels good oozing between your toes, doesn’t it?”, I ask.  “And that algae tickling your feet is just a plant, like grass. Here, look at it, touch it. See all the tiny insects and snails there?  It’s loaded with life, food for ducks and fish and wading birds.  It’s all connected and it’s all good”, I say.

I know from daily swims that little bluegill like to nip at me and are especially attracted to an insect bite or anything irregular on my skin, and their nips are surprising and impressively fierce. I can’t help but twitch and occasionally yelp when attacked. My usual remedy is to keep swimming as they seem less interested in a moving target.  But now, with my attention focused on youngsters, I’m pausing frequently to provide them a point of anchorage, and thus exposing myself to marauding bluegills.

If I am to offer a series of positive, natural world introductions and experiences, and not to initiate phobias, my reaction to a fish attack needs to be calmly controlled, ideally unnoticed. “Why are you jumping, Uncle Joe?  Are you messing with me?”  I could see just behind those trusting eyes a readiness to bolt, panic-stricken for shore.  A bad experience today could have lifelong implications. I couldn’t let it happen, but neither could I keep from flinching, especially when a gang of particularly aggressive bluegills began showing an interest in my right nipple. I had to come clean. “Yes, the fish are biting me but you’ll be fine as long as you keep your nipples covered”.

There will be a time to interject more of the harsh realities of the natural world, to share the understanding that almost everything alive feeds on something that is also alive, and sometimes the process gets downright brutal and ugly. The want for food and procreation is the thread that weaves all life together. The quest for survival, the seizing of opportunity, spins the gears of evolution.

But all of that is a lesson for later. Today we focus on pond life and fresh wild berries and baby toads. Today we learn it’s okay to step barefoot in goose poop because it’s just grass and water. Today we keep it simple in the hope of sparking a greater appreciation and curiosity of the natural world.

There is a paramount danger in being unaware of ecological principles, of the rippling influence of removing a single living component from a complex ecosystem. Embracing an ethic that puts planetary health front and center is vital to civilization as we know it, and acting to improve and preserve ecological well-being will by default lead to resolution of many other world problems.

In A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC, Aldo Leopold wrote “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace”.  I think of these dangers as I consider the opportunity of the day, taking young minds on an exploration of life on a semi-abandoned midwest farm. By the end of it we stride barefoot through goose poop with little regard. I hear young voices volunteering to take food waste to the compost pile. We’ve learned to catch tiny man-eating bluegill using small hand nets. We know when to protect our nipples. These are experiences that might one day help spark a commitment to save a crippled planet.

There is a growing consensus that the sixth great extinction, or the first great extermination, has commenced. Climate change, with its complexity of feedback loops, has been unleashed, and many of its consequences will not be avoided. Two bedrocks of ecological systems, insects and coral reefs, are in rapid decline. The oceans are acidifying, food systems are failing, water emergencies declared, devastating weather events and mass migrations of people are underway, and all will only worsen. We are entering an era not seen since the advent of man, solidly science based, yet denied by national leadership.

Today’s youth are rising up. The climate strikes initiated by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg have spawned a global movement demanding bold and immediate adoption of actions which just might save our civilization. Ditto the Extinction Rebellion and Sunrise Movement. Collectively they represent an inspiring and hope filled revolution with solutions that are within our reach, but  the responsibility of seeing them through rests on us adults and our decision makers.  Exposing the very young to the wonders and beauty of natural systems, helping them visualize man as a harmonious and respectful component in the web of life, is a part of the process.

Here’s to the youth who see
How a peopled earth should be
Here’s to the ones who dare
To stand up and show us they care

They tell us
A bit of madness is okay
If it advances the solutions of the day
They know where a future unchanged will lead us
And that’s why they need us*

In the end it comes down to this
A chance they beg we don’t miss
Our earth is dying
Our leaders are lying
And our children are crying
Resist!

*credit La La Land, The Fools Who Dream