Spending time in nature has been my solace during this pandemic.
One of my favorite places to visit is the University of Wisconsin Arboretum in Madison, Wisconsin, a 1,260 acre preserved area that serves as a research and teaching site for ecological restoration. The Arboretum was founded in 1932, and its first director of research was the famous naturalist author Aldo Leopold who lived in Madison at that time.
Leopold’s most famous book, A Sand County Almanac, has sold over 2 million copies. I first read this eye-opening book as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. It forever changed how I view the importance of land preservation and our interconnectedness with the natural world. I even remember taking my copy of the book to read when I visited the UW Arboretum some forty years ago.
A quote from A Sand County Almanac seems especially appropriate to our current time, where the pandemic has made abundantly clear how interconnected we are with one another and with the natural world.
“All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively the land.”
We are indeed each a member of a community of interdependent parts. No one of us can affect the course of this pandemic by ourselves. It is said that it takes a village to raise a child. It also most certainly takes a village, a community of interdependent people, to contain a highly contagious and life-threatening virus.
If you feel a bit exhausted by what I recently heard described as the “Coronacoaster,” I highly recommend spending some time in a park or nature preserve in your community. Not only will you find solace in the calm and peacefulness of the natural world, but you will also be reminded of the interconnectedness of all of life.
Article by The Rev. Dr. D. Scott Stoner, Living Compass
