Park vs. Wilderness

Considering that I just spent nearly three days in the Wilderness with little electricity, no air conditioning, ‘soft’ water, and nearly fifty other sweaty humans who when they step out of said ‘soft’ water smell just as bad (if not worse) than before, I cannot help but contrast this with our Walking Tour of Audubon Park. The park was beautiful to be sure, but man’s mark could not help but be noticed; the grass cut weekly, a concrete slab placed around perfectly selected giant oak trees (suitable for climbing) with a giant golf course smack dab in the middle. A leisurely stroll across placid ground. The Wilderness in its naturalness is far less selective: the tallest ‘whispering’ pines, so numerous in quantity, spring up where they may surrounded by shrubbery five feet high. Rocky, soggy ground that seeped into my tennis shoes after being forced to trek what seemed like twenty miles through the beating rain and tortuous sun. Killing flea-like bugs with my Norton textbook. Wilderness far more miserable, yet so much more ‘experience-able.’

But with these differences came so many similarities. I was accosted by butterflies (Who knew they were such violent creatures?) nearly ran into several giant spider webs, smelled muggy lagoon/lake water, and got blisters. Most importantly I noticed that nature never fails to make one experience and feel, no matter their orientation or degree. This may sound contradictory taking into account that I found Wilderness more experience-able. However, you can be calmly smirking at a fat squirrel on an old tire in Audubon Park or you can be sweating to death in the middle of nowhere, but the senses are involved in both cases, equally affecting one’s mood. (Aha! Blake was onto something with his ‘senses’ talk…)

After this week, I can understand why the Romantics were drawn toward nature. Being able to experience nature forces a person to step away from their comfort zone; you can learn so much about yourself. By doing this you start to see day-to-day life more clearly in a way entirely new.

I cannot express this better than Wordsworth:

“One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good

Than all the sages can.”

- “Tables Turned,” lines 21-24