Woohoo! Great flicks! Thank-you.
I took an “Ecology” class in college around 1971. It was a new word, a catch phrase to most, at that time. The knowledge was pretty small, rudimentary. As we see in the flick, the knowledge has grown during the 45 years since. Using these simple principles, given by a passionate teacher, I have been stimulate to apply these simple principles and observation ever since. My understanding has often been misconstrued, or mistaken, but what I have seen has been nothing short of astounding, revelatory. My personal experience has been a reflection of what the people in the field have been having. It generally takes time in one area, seasons and years. The sky island region in its complexity can never be deeply managed. Man is just too ignorant and lacks the resources to adjust to the diversity. The complexity of nature also, is one of those awe inspiring things that impact me in a spiritual manner.
The audacity and ignorance of 20th century man in particular, armed with the ego of simplistic science has proven to be…just incredible over the years. In major fields, trusted fields, man has demonstrated and still does, that our knowledge is like that of babes, and young boys. I found the psychology that I studied in the seventies a joke. The authorities trapped and limiting themselves, clamoring to the industrial money, then of the Rockefeller Foundation and empirical demands. The dominate culture is still limited similarly, amazingly ignorant. Medicine has seen impractical and damaging fads, over and over again, taking small measures and discounting small pieces, just like murdering predators. There is little understanding of interrelationships, lifestyle, and there is exploitation from pure greed. Breast milk is inferior, thyroid serves no function, all cholesterol is bad, and the examples are endless. Sometimes it is necessary to adjust a child that is too big for its pants, but these foolish kids have me powerless.
After that last trip into the White Mountains, when I called the Forest Service, I learned more of their wolf reintroduction program and how they are using satellite tracking and moving cattle away from wolves as the Peter Coyote flick shows us prey shift the over grazing. This is a new concept in my thinking. I continuously see the destruction that cattle cause. There are no 1200 pound beasts with foot prints that size, lumbering through, wallowing, browsing quantities of brush and shrubs in the natural habitat here. Cattle are devastating. Then, I think without this on public lands, how much richer life could be. I have observed the protected areas around here. Like that pristine area in Zion (we were there last summer, I recognized that, there are too many people) the difference and experience is astounding.
The economics of this cattle ranching on the public lands is about large corporations. They are either in direct control, or squeezing the life out of the smaller ranchers that work so hard. The percentage of the entire western states grazing on public lands is only 7% of the total production of cattle in the country. That’s like opting to not eat a burger for lunch once a week. We could do without, and never really notice it. There are books about this; the mess goes on and on. My thinking has been that with the competition gone things would return to normal and flourish, and I have seen numerous dramatic examples of this. I figured that nature would increase the amount of game, so that hunting and eco-tourism would provide better economic impact and sustainability. BUT, here is another factor introduced. While less destructive than cattle, the deer, elk, etc., need to be driven by predators. Predators are natural shepherds preventing overgrazing. Here I am, the ignorant man.
So, I am finding that there are kinds of ecology in all aspects of life to be discovered. Man needs to learn how to interfere with the organization the least, to live with, to trust God as nature and better know the huge. We may be best to get off of this trip, or get off of the planet.
Anyway, this gets to the practice of naturism and atavism. Here, amongst our discourse over these years, we have also found shoes, and clothing solutions and clothing indulgences that have lost sight of our nature. We need to experiment, observe, discuss and promote what we find as we relate to nature, just like these other messes that man makes. I’m grateful that this forum is here for at least a handful of us, for this purpose (among other purposes).
We are finding that the naked body is a superior vehicle, integral to the natural world. Bodies work better, healthier, efficiently, when they are left as a part of the natural world, too. The science and culture produce unsustainable and damaging practices. We are now seeing what shoes are doing to the complex systems throughout the body. From causing, all kinds of disease over years, back problems, pain, the whole system is infected. We are seeing the amazing way that they work, just like adding wolves back to an ecosystem, the discoveries are amazing. Skin is getting more respect as science discovers that we need its wisdom and protection more that it needs our protection. We interfere and don’t trust enough. More of man’s collective ego stomping around like a bull in a china store.
Absolutism, black and white, good and bad thinking, conflict and positional action, i.e. stubbornness, dominance, have given us all a great deal of problems. There does seem to be a new aspect, an evolution in consciousness appearing, as we discover that we are all one with something incomprehensible. There are lessons occurring, mistakes becoming more and more evident, more dramatic, more publicized. In desperation and deeper understanding many are evolving into that trust. The tipping point may have to be a point of a sense of helplessness, but with these lessons of trust already understood by more, there will be a place to go.
Jbee
