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Peco's avatar

“Perhaps it is the imperceptibility of the process of loss.”

Nature requires a quieter sort of attention, the kind that struggles to compete with civilization. We are losing that quiet attention, and nuance of perception. Your reflections highlight well not only the loss of diversity in nature, but its interconnection with our own mental numbing.

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Ruth Gaskovski's avatar

This is indeed a sad essay, but you always manage to draw the gaze outward. I think as parents we can help to redirect focus on nature around us by re-learning to name things. I had forgotten many plant, tree, and bird names until I had to teach them to my children. I appreciate that you added some practical steps we can take. The more children spend time in nature and are able to identify what they see, the more they will care.

When we still lived in a more suburban setting, I would walk far distances with my kids, along roads that were not particularly pretty, but some were bordered by farm fields. There we would see some rare coyotes, hawks, or starlings clustering on a giant oak tree. The time came when they brought the bulldozers in to rape the land, and the kids were terribly saddened to see the field ripped up. My son (9 at the time) decided that he wanted to write a letter to the newspaper, and expressed his sadness that the remaining beauty around him was being built over with townhomes.

I hope readers will feel encouraged to spend more time outdoors with their children so that they will learn to name the natural beauty around them, and to care for its protection.

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