How difficult it is to get myself into the woods, an effort I make every day, though not always successfully. All these old messages come to mind about wasting my time, or its too hot, too many bugs, too cold. But once I get there, there is a mystical/magical experience that takes place.
What is it that draws us to the woods during vacations and time off, and provides us with an awe-filled experience? Is it the change in tempo, air, in pace and sounds; or is there a magic – an experience that we do not understand? Is there a connection from our evolutionary past between ourselves and the animals and plants that make up the woods? Do we somehow connect?
Like the animals and plants, a common phenomenon is the basic drive for survival of the species. We humans used the Earth with a vengeance in our drive toward survival of the human race. It has worked – we are now more than five billion strong on this Earth. But this drive has propelled us to a consumption level that is now reversing itself like the animal that multiplies and overpopulates an area so much that it can no longer sustain its numbers. Air pollution, acid rain, ground water pollution, soil erosion, pollution of the oceans, destruction of the ozone, mass extinction of other species – signs of human overgrazing.
What makes humans “different”, according to Brian Swimme, is our consciousness of the beauty and awe of the Earth and the whole Universe. We have lost this sense of wonderment – are so busy “surviving” in our consumptive patterns that we no longer try to communicate with other species, or wonder at the Earth alive, or search for God within the living Earth.
To live as if the Earth and its people are sacred, we need to stop, listen, and be present to the others who share this planet with us. IMAGO is located on Enright Avenue. True or False: There are some 90 households of people that make up this neighborhood. The above statement is false. Not that there are not 90 households, but the fact that they make up the neighborhood. A hundred acres of woods encircle the street, much as humans do; a hundred acres of woods and plants and animals. The old growth chinkapin oaks, the buckeyes, locusts and maples; the deer that eat from the apple trees and bring sounds of joy to children and adults alike, the foxes that move stealthily through the woods, hiding their dens in the hillside; the funny little raccoon, that’s not always so funny when it tips garbage cans and raids the chicken coops; the mosquitoes that harass me as I sit here in the woods composing this essay.
And these hundred acres are part of a huge wildlife corridor running from near downtown Cincinnati to the Indiana border.
If we speak of community, which I believe we must when we consider the Earth and its people as sacred, we must see much more than just people. We are earthlings, and all the earthlings around us – the birds, the bees, the trees and foliage, the waters and rocks and humans – are all part of this community.
We are interdependent, we must depend on each other. I was a vegetarian for five years partly because I did not like the idea of killing animals for food. But I now believe it is not the killing and eating of animals or plants that is harmful, but our lack of reverence and thankfulness to the fellow members of our community for the life and food they are providing us for survival.
And so, one goal of IMAGO is to preserve the woods of Enright Ridge; the deer and fox to roam, the birds to migrate to this place, and the squirrels to travel from treetop to treetop, rather than from electrical wire to electrical wire. To allow the ash, oak, hackberry, mulberry, and catalpa trees to grow and shade the soil below and provide protection and nourishment for all the creatures within. There is a time and place to cut a tree or kill an animal; but in Cincinnati, we have raped and destroyed enough of the natural world around us, and mostly for greed and comfort and with little respect There is little enough room for our fellow earthlings. We can hardly learn to love and respect them if they are no longer around.
This coming year, a major part of our energy will go into preserving these woods, and of necessity, the wildlife corridor that connects us for miles along the Ohio River.
Many of our programs are dependent on just a few people. This project needs to involve many people if it is to succeed. Over the next year, we will be in touch with you, asking for your help in relating to and protecting our community.
In the meantime, I would like to invite you to come by and meet the other species in our community. Early evening is a nice time to visit. Give me a call if you would like to go out with me sometime into our community of other species.
It is only when we come to love and protect our fellow species, and respect them for their beauty, song, or as food; only in this way will we find it in ourselves to care for the species of the world and cease the destruction of habitat of all species, including human. I contend that we cannot respect humans while not respecting the rest of our friends and Earthlings.
So, as I swat the mosquitoes that are drawing blood and leaving welts, I try to remember what an incredible, intricate insect they are, thank them for their lives – and end this article because they are eating me alive!
rjamesschenk.org 