Nature

“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (p.409)

I like this quote a lot because it reminds me of lessons taught to me growing up in Sunday school as a Christian. The quote from Genesis talks about how we were created in gods image and put on this earth to have dominion and control of everything in it. While that is a purely religious belief of mine I think the quote is still true in the sense that humans have taken this idea to heart. While humans have been on this earth for a small fraction of the entire time that life has existed on this planet we as a population have risen to the undisputed top of the food chain and through technological innovations have made use of deep ore deposits and vast agricultural practices as well as being able to do things such as fly though the sky. With all of humanity's achievements its fairly easy to say that we have complete dominion over our planet and are even expanding that control to our moon and maybe even the entire solar system. Hopefully one day we can solve all of our problems and have countless planets under our control in order to ensure the success and continuation of our species.

"Thoreau’s naturalism was supported by his lack of need for the human companionship and conversation found in urban surroundings." (p.414)

I agree with David Thoreau's idea of naturalism however I find this quote to be quite sad.

I understand his position and distaste for the urban and city lifestyle he often wrote about however I think Isolation is not necessary to be a naturalist or even appreciate nature. In my opinion all you need is access to nature in order to appreciate it rather than isolate yourself from anything regarding urban living. For example I would never want to live farther than 15-20 minutes from a hospital out of fear of dying from something that would otherwise have been preventable. All I need to appreciate nature is a small park and or be within 30-60 minutes from a nature reserve of some kind just to be able to get away for a while. When I want to go on a long trip from urban life I can always go hiking and camping on a mountain or a large national park of which there are thousands to choose from in the US alone. Its just sad to me to think that someone thought they had to forgo almost all human interaction in order to appreciate nature.

"Moby-Dick follows the tragic attempt of one man to find and destroy a white whale that has taken off his leg in a previous encounter and that symbolizes all of nature’s, and therefore God’s, power." (p.419)

In this quote the text is describing the story of someone who is stuck fighting against nature which many people do across the world. From earthquakes to hurricanes nature always finds a way to destroy billions of dollars worth of homes and businesses every year. As someone who has lived in Florida the vast majority of his life I'm very familiar with these types of disaster's and have been in awe at what mother nature is capable of.

I've seen entire houses demolished, streets submerged, and trees uprooted and thrown hundreds of feet all at the hands of a hurricane. I was hit directly by hurricane Charlie when I was just 2 years old and have survived dozens more all while being at the mercy of mother nature. These types of disasters are incredible in a way that even with all the technological innovation that we humans have achieved with putting people on the moon and such we are still unable to tame these types of disasters completely.

Janaro & Altshuler, The Art of Being Human - The Humanities as a Technique for Living 11th Edition, Pearson 2016