Nature: A Definition

What is nature? In the simplest of terms, nature is exactly what you make it. Nature can be out in the Badlands of South Dakota, Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, or Times Square in New York City. From a single tree planted on the sidewalk to the vast forests that cover parts of the country, nature is everywhere. It’s inside every single life form on this planet. Hell, we’re not too different from animals, even though we like to pretend we are. What happens when a dog or cat senses something it doesn’t like? The hair on its back and neck stand up. Does not the same thing happen to humans?

I think of nature and of human nature, and how they relate to one another, and see many things within humans that I see within nature as well. It’s almost scary, to be honest. However, human nature, and nature itself, have some very different practices. Kathleen Moore states, “Our temptation is to design arrogant policies and make dubious decisions, and then we end up doing up doing to the natural world what ticks do to us, except that ticks have the good grace to drop off when their stomachs are full.” Sadly, her words ring forth with the chimes of beautiful, brutal honesty. In nature, we see harmony, balance, symbiosis, and natural solutions to any problems within the balance. Somehow, humans messed up along the way. Moore sums up fairly well by saying, “Shit happens, we say. And sometimes it does. But the fact of the matter is that sometimes, shit doesn’t just happen. Sometimes, human beings deliberately create the conditions under which shit is more likely to occur.” Nature always finds a way. It takes humans a little longer and a bit more heartache to figure that lesson out.

Nature is not just a physical state of the world, nor is it an almighty entity that laughs at our frail human mortality. Nature is a powerful force, capable of sustaining fragile lives one minute and sending the strongest of creatures to their deaths in the next. Nature has a way of knowing when it’s been hurt, when to heal its wounds, and when to reclaim what rightfully belongs to it. In The Pine Island Paradox, Moore relates a story about how she and her husband pay to have a dam on their property demolished, only to find that the demolition did more harm than good. They set out to finish the job themselves, and at first, the Marys River sluggishly reacts. However, when she reflects on it ten years later, Nature has healed itself and found a way to make things work. She does state that “an earth that is at once functionally forgiving and thunderously vengeful raises all the familiar questions of redemption and remorse. When it comes to the earth, can there be redemption in good works?” Yes, there can be redemption, and there almost always is.

Another person who seems to understand this balance that I keep getting on about is Scott Russell Sanders. In Sanctuary, he states, “From the clustering of galaxies to the spinning of quarks, we find an intricate order whose laws we may decipher but cannot alter.” Humans always tell tales of ‘blazing trails into the untamed wilderness’ and brag about their apparently ability to domesticate nature, but they seem to enjoy living in their blissful ignorance. We can shape the land to fit our needs. We can make trails and portages, farmlands, and cities, but if we left it alone for an extended period of time, Nature would come back to claim what rightfully belongs to it. As I stated before, Nature is not a dog or an ox, a creature that can be tamed and forced to bend to the will of man. Nature is a wild beast, and will not hesitate to lash out and attack when we go too far.

So, what is nature? Do I actually have a good final summation, an answer that you’ll actually like? Probably not, but I can try. Thoreau says that humans need wildness like a garden needs nourishing muck in order to flourish, and I can agree. We live in symbiosis with nature, constantly playing off of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We are also constantly engaged in a fierce battle for dominance with each other, constantly trying to outdo the opposing force in a futile attempt to reign supreme over them with an air of triumph and false hope that the victor shall stay dominant in this relationship. But, inevitably, there will be another challenge, and the fight will begin anew, and will stay that way until one side finally wipes the other out and condemns itself in the process.

Nature is everything that shapes our world. Be it a tiny mouse in the walls of an apartment building or a mammoth blue whale swimming in the open oceans, Nature is everywhere. It is everything that we want to be, and everything that we are. It lives, dies, and is reborn constantly. It is a vicious circle, and a circle of life. You ask, what is nature? I say, decide for yourself.