new reader here and really appreciate this. While I "know" the increased heat and lack of rains, as well as deforestation where I live in NW WA are directly hurting ones who absolutely need the amount of rains that have traditionally fallen here- ie. Western Red Cedar, it's still really hard on little me to make home in a region where it's gray and rainy all of the time. But ultimately I do care more for the fate of Western Red Cedar than my own sometimes since my health is actually quite woven into theirs. Pushing back on my own indoctrinated thinking of human supremacy and that nature is here for me is a regular practice. I am not an outdoors person in the sport sense and I lived in a very very outdoorsy area which disgusts me a lot given the ego entitlement of the lifestyle. Every ski season I dream of going up to the mountain with a petition to close the mountain-just like every other year, can the mountain just be and have a break from us humans clamoring all over them, skiing everywhere, littering, taking pictures of our dogs in holiday sweaters for our IG feeds? I have yet to meet anyone else who shares this dream hahaha :)
Happy to have found you down a Substack rabbit hole tonight. And I’m from toledo & have met Dr perry man! Loved the addition of the bird song to your writing.
Mar 23, 2023·edited Mar 23, 2023Liked by Antonia Malchik
The line, “Nature doesn’t exist for your stoke,” really caught my eye. I have felt that way for years.
One of my favorite professors at BSU was (he passed suddenly three years ago) an expert in public lands—both their history and their management. Whenever Sally Jewel was visiting the Northwest the two of them would meet up to talk shop. He hated Outdoor magazine for the way they endlessly pimped the outdoors, including even wilderness areas. I hate car commercials for the same reason. They invariably show happy and prosperous young people living the good life by splashing their shiny new SUVs through streambeds and tearing up what looks like mountain fire roads. Both examples only serve to reinforce the tragic and deeply rooted mindset that humans are in charge of all that we encounter, that non-human nature exist solely for our exploitation and our amusement, and that it has no value except as what philosopher Martin Heidegger calls “standing-reserve”—a captive resource to provide recreational experiences, oftentimes motorized, no matter how invasive or destructive, and as the thankless source of boundless material wealth for insatiably parasitical human beings.
Speaking of the motorized amusements of entitled human beings: in Judith Layzer’s book The Environmental Case: Translating Values Into Policy, a chapter on snowmobiles in Yellowstone begins with the line. “By the mid-1990s the National Park Service was reporting that wintertime air quality in some parts of the park was the worst in the nation and that the drone of snowmobiles was perpetually audible at Old Faithful.” As you might guess, the situation has not improved since then. Much like leaf blowers, I hate the damned things.
I have a close family member who loves to deride people who don’t believe in anthropogenic climate change and who wouldn’t dream of not voting Democrat. But he bought himself a brand-new Jeep Gladiator a couple of years ago (battleship grey), and a 35 ft camper. During the warm weather months, along with swarms of fresh colonizers in their expensive new motorhomes loaded down with every imaginable motorized contraption and with huge boats in tow, he is on the newly crowded highways every weekend on his way to lakes, rivers, and campgrounds. For many years those same lakes, rivers, and campground were relatively pristine, cherished and cared for, uncrowded, and uncluttered; but all that has recently changed. People are rude, they are noisy, they often leave piles of trash and garbage, sometimes even inside the fire pits and the campground toilets, and there is graffiti the likes of which I have never seen before in Idaho. It is heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking.
So yes…nature doesn’t exist for our stoke. Except apparently it does.
By the way, the two best things to do with huckleberries is to either sprinkle them into a large pancake just when it is beginning to bubble on the griddle, or sprinkle them onto a huge bowl of French Vanilla ice cream. Freshly brewed coffee is always a great addition to the pancake.
Man, I do not know how you manage to live your life -- including skinning up mountains! -- writing newsletters, being involved with your community, and consuming all of the media you do.
I hate that these days I feel like I'm so often swimming upstream against all that I need/want to do. I know it's within my control and yet it doesn't always feel that way.
As for what we expect from nature, man, that's such a huge topic, and when you add to that what's happening in Ukraine, Xi visiting Putin, the latest climate report from the UN, America's looming budget problems, another US election in the offing, I swear some days it's all I can do to not run shrieking from the world.
P.s. Another fine companion to Timothy Snyder's series: Black Sea, by Neal Ascherson.. goes into geology, back to 6th or 8th century B.C., stops to step.on the emergence of a "distinction" between Our Selves (settled tribes, Greeks-) and the impinging "Barbarians," coming from vast distances, and capable of disappearing into them. (Lane's book -- I have to get my own!)
Thank you, Antonia. Another beautiful, thoughtful reflection on the way our current "civilization" scoops us up as soon as we turn verbal, and begins to assert our "obvious" seperation from the reality that brought us into life, and still holds us. But not in a way that will keep us from sliding backwards down an icy slope. Good work.on joining the Badger-Two Med trail crew. Respect!
Appreciate these reflections and all the resources! "This bird doesn’t really care what I think about extended daylight hours and too much sunshine." Love those works and hearing the bird as well!
That bird is such a beautiful sound to hear. I too think a lot about how we assume outdoorsy sports and pursuits are inherently good... But what I love is this: "The sun just kept shining." O I feel that in my bones--when it's so bright here now on sunny days and it just won't stop in the summer--it feels like a spotlight and I want to hold on to some of the darkness. Because it just. keeps. shining. ;)
The Dimaline quote at the beginning echoes a comment made during a conversation I just had yesterday. So much of what we are trying to do in the world today requires a recognition that those of us DOING it won't see the results. From conservation to what is happening in my Little Shell tribe, that is the story. Most of us struggle to reconcile that.
As for Indigenous organizations, I direct people to All Nations Health Center, located in Missoula. They do necessary work for the urban Indian population of the city, which doesn't have an IHS clinic. I made this recommendation even before I joined the board.
Thanks for another lovely piece. Your mention of the book about capitalism brought to mind this excellent podcast season of Scene on Radio called “The Repair,” in which John Biewen teams with the great climate journalist Amy Westervelt to trace the history of fossil fuel’s dominance in our country. They cover a lot of fascinating ground. One of the episodes gets into radicalized capitalism and connects the “thingification” of Africans to justify the slave trade with the same treatment of land and original people in North America.
new reader here and really appreciate this. While I "know" the increased heat and lack of rains, as well as deforestation where I live in NW WA are directly hurting ones who absolutely need the amount of rains that have traditionally fallen here- ie. Western Red Cedar, it's still really hard on little me to make home in a region where it's gray and rainy all of the time. But ultimately I do care more for the fate of Western Red Cedar than my own sometimes since my health is actually quite woven into theirs. Pushing back on my own indoctrinated thinking of human supremacy and that nature is here for me is a regular practice. I am not an outdoors person in the sport sense and I lived in a very very outdoorsy area which disgusts me a lot given the ego entitlement of the lifestyle. Every ski season I dream of going up to the mountain with a petition to close the mountain-just like every other year, can the mountain just be and have a break from us humans clamoring all over them, skiing everywhere, littering, taking pictures of our dogs in holiday sweaters for our IG feeds? I have yet to meet anyone else who shares this dream hahaha :)
I’m so far behind, but I wish I’d read this before I wrote about mountain bike trails!
Happy to have found you down a Substack rabbit hole tonight. And I’m from toledo & have met Dr perry man! Loved the addition of the bird song to your writing.
So glad you enjoyed that Reframing Rural. Montana is starting to get some great podcasts, if only people knew how to find them!
The line, “Nature doesn’t exist for your stoke,” really caught my eye. I have felt that way for years.
One of my favorite professors at BSU was (he passed suddenly three years ago) an expert in public lands—both their history and their management. Whenever Sally Jewel was visiting the Northwest the two of them would meet up to talk shop. He hated Outdoor magazine for the way they endlessly pimped the outdoors, including even wilderness areas. I hate car commercials for the same reason. They invariably show happy and prosperous young people living the good life by splashing their shiny new SUVs through streambeds and tearing up what looks like mountain fire roads. Both examples only serve to reinforce the tragic and deeply rooted mindset that humans are in charge of all that we encounter, that non-human nature exist solely for our exploitation and our amusement, and that it has no value except as what philosopher Martin Heidegger calls “standing-reserve”—a captive resource to provide recreational experiences, oftentimes motorized, no matter how invasive or destructive, and as the thankless source of boundless material wealth for insatiably parasitical human beings.
Speaking of the motorized amusements of entitled human beings: in Judith Layzer’s book The Environmental Case: Translating Values Into Policy, a chapter on snowmobiles in Yellowstone begins with the line. “By the mid-1990s the National Park Service was reporting that wintertime air quality in some parts of the park was the worst in the nation and that the drone of snowmobiles was perpetually audible at Old Faithful.” As you might guess, the situation has not improved since then. Much like leaf blowers, I hate the damned things.
I have a close family member who loves to deride people who don’t believe in anthropogenic climate change and who wouldn’t dream of not voting Democrat. But he bought himself a brand-new Jeep Gladiator a couple of years ago (battleship grey), and a 35 ft camper. During the warm weather months, along with swarms of fresh colonizers in their expensive new motorhomes loaded down with every imaginable motorized contraption and with huge boats in tow, he is on the newly crowded highways every weekend on his way to lakes, rivers, and campgrounds. For many years those same lakes, rivers, and campground were relatively pristine, cherished and cared for, uncrowded, and uncluttered; but all that has recently changed. People are rude, they are noisy, they often leave piles of trash and garbage, sometimes even inside the fire pits and the campground toilets, and there is graffiti the likes of which I have never seen before in Idaho. It is heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking.
So yes…nature doesn’t exist for our stoke. Except apparently it does.
By the way, the two best things to do with huckleberries is to either sprinkle them into a large pancake just when it is beginning to bubble on the griddle, or sprinkle them onto a huge bowl of French Vanilla ice cream. Freshly brewed coffee is always a great addition to the pancake.
I am going to buy the Fraser book.
__________
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.
—from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, by Lord Byron
Thank you as always, Nia!
Man, I do not know how you manage to live your life -- including skinning up mountains! -- writing newsletters, being involved with your community, and consuming all of the media you do.
I hate that these days I feel like I'm so often swimming upstream against all that I need/want to do. I know it's within my control and yet it doesn't always feel that way.
As for what we expect from nature, man, that's such a huge topic, and when you add to that what's happening in Ukraine, Xi visiting Putin, the latest climate report from the UN, America's looming budget problems, another US election in the offing, I swear some days it's all I can do to not run shrieking from the world.
P.s. Another fine companion to Timothy Snyder's series: Black Sea, by Neal Ascherson.. goes into geology, back to 6th or 8th century B.C., stops to step.on the emergence of a "distinction" between Our Selves (settled tribes, Greeks-) and the impinging "Barbarians," coming from vast distances, and capable of disappearing into them. (Lane's book -- I have to get my own!)
Thank you, Antonia. Another beautiful, thoughtful reflection on the way our current "civilization" scoops us up as soon as we turn verbal, and begins to assert our "obvious" seperation from the reality that brought us into life, and still holds us. But not in a way that will keep us from sliding backwards down an icy slope. Good work.on joining the Badger-Two Med trail crew. Respect!
Appreciate these reflections and all the resources! "This bird doesn’t really care what I think about extended daylight hours and too much sunshine." Love those works and hearing the bird as well!
That bird is such a beautiful sound to hear. I too think a lot about how we assume outdoorsy sports and pursuits are inherently good... But what I love is this: "The sun just kept shining." O I feel that in my bones--when it's so bright here now on sunny days and it just won't stop in the summer--it feels like a spotlight and I want to hold on to some of the darkness. Because it just. keeps. shining. ;)
The Dimaline quote at the beginning echoes a comment made during a conversation I just had yesterday. So much of what we are trying to do in the world today requires a recognition that those of us DOING it won't see the results. From conservation to what is happening in my Little Shell tribe, that is the story. Most of us struggle to reconcile that.
As for Indigenous organizations, I direct people to All Nations Health Center, located in Missoula. They do necessary work for the urban Indian population of the city, which doesn't have an IHS clinic. I made this recommendation even before I joined the board.
https://www.allnations.health/donate-now/
Missoula meander today, not forest. Higgins to Bear Tracks bridge over the river.
Thanks for another lovely piece. Your mention of the book about capitalism brought to mind this excellent podcast season of Scene on Radio called “The Repair,” in which John Biewen teams with the great climate journalist Amy Westervelt to trace the history of fossil fuel’s dominance in our country. They cover a lot of fascinating ground. One of the episodes gets into radicalized capitalism and connects the “thingification” of Africans to justify the slave trade with the same treatment of land and original people in North America.
Song sparrow, I think! Lovely piece.