Has anyone read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein? I used to teach a theatre class for 4 and 5 year olds, and I used to read this book with them and have them act it out every semester. (So cute!) Anyway, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, here's a little summary: a little boy plays outside by this big apple tree, swings from its branches and climbs all day long, and both the tree and the boy are happy. As the boy grows up, however, he wants to make some money, so the tree offers him its apples to sell. When the boy gets old and sad he wants to get away, so the tree offers him its branches to make a boat, and he sails away for a long time. At the very end of the story, the boy is now an old man, and he is so tired and old that he comes back to the tree, now a stump, to sit down and rest. And both of them are happy again.
This story reminds me of what we are talking about in class, with nature having a goal. But this story offers a twist; the goal of the tree is to please the boy. The tree is happiest when the boy is close by. Can this happen? Can it be nature's goal to be utilized by humans? Not every acorn grows into an oak tree... but even the ones that do don't end up the same. Some are made into tree houses, and some hang tire swings. I don't think this is a bad thing; because in the end all of those result in people spending more time in nature and the outdoors anyway.
I do know about the giving tee and yeah it is a really cute story. But I wouldn't say that nature is there to make us happy. I think that we, as humans, are apart of nature and it is our natural instinct to be apart of it. Just like we plant trees in our yards, use landscaping, and enjoy things like parks and sunsets. I agree that we do use nature to our advantage and in a way we should be utilizing it. But utilizing it in a way that makes both humans and nature happy, not just stripping it down for human consumption.
ReplyDeleteIve read this, and I think the boy does a good job of representing humans as a whole, by constantly taking from the tree. But this may be me reading too much into it.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.... I just got through a 20 hr work weekend and my 3 month old puppy suffered worse than me. I am going somewhere with this. Yes, Silverstein is a wonderful author, but let me tell you about the tree story in real life for me. Dharma is wound up and I live on the side of East Mountain in Port Mtailda, right/...soooo I take her for her first hike "up, over, and down...then around to home) During this 2 hour trip I had much needed thinking time and she needed exercise, and, thus I started watching her behavior. I never thought of myself as being a tree until I just read your blog! When we were starting out and going UP the mountain, she kept turning around (being her first time) but then she kept doing it as if either to make sure I was behind her instinctively (like a beast) or...was she concerned? Nature looking after Nature? Then...upon decent, she was a bit more sure of herself, however, still kept looking back. I stopped. So did she. She peed then down we went. At the bottom (tree and boy) she jumped on my coat as if that was the greatest experience in "puppyhood thus far"!! So your blog made me smile, and think of the tree...and me ...and Dharma...Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with the fact that nature, specifically the tree or plants engineer themselves and evolve to the preferences of humans and other animals. I think this is probably because we as humans and animals are transportation for those plants which do not move. Through eating and our movements, we carry the seeds of their genes and thus spread their species to other places. It is the plant's way of making their population larger and spreading their population to new places. By evolving so that humans and animals will spend more time by them, or eating them, or spending time in their shade, or admiring their great colors, the plants are ensuring that they have the greatest chance of avoiding extinction and growing their numbers.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe nature is here to please the likes of human beings. Sure we utilize the forests and nature a lot, but at the same time, do you consider yourself here for the purpose of pollinating flowers? Are we here to further their evolutionary growth? Because it's the same thing. We utilize nature, sure. But nature also utilizes us. So if you think we are here to be utilized by nature, then yes, nature is here to be utilized by us.
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a good question in your post: “Can it be nature’s goal to be utilized by humans?” that I’d like to respond to. I believe the answer can be yes and no. I would say that yes, it is nature’s goal to be utilized by all animals on the earth, human’s included. After all, animals are part of nature and rely mutually on it to survive. For example, animals feed off of the earth, allowing the re-growth of plants. But I believe humans have exhausted the earth more than any other animal, and this is where my answer becomes no, nature’s goal is not to be used up by humans. What used to be a give-and-take relationship between humans and the natural world (when Neanderthals lived, for ex.) is now just a take relationship on the human end. We have ‘worn out our welcome’ so to speak, and are now required to “apologize” (through proactive efforts to replenish earth’s resources) if we want to survive.
ReplyDeleteThe Giving Tree is one of my favorite books by Shel Silverstein. I think it captures our relationship with nature and how it is more mutual, where we are finding the usefulness of nature while it is finding the same in us. I think we are happiest when we are with nature as well because we are created to delight in nature.
ReplyDeleteI agree strongly with what Hilary stated. The evolutionary concept mentioned was present in The Botany of Desire, and i see it as being pretty accurate. It is not nature's goal to be utilized by humans however. Nature utilizes humans in order to increase the chance of the one ultimate goal, reproduction.
ReplyDeleteAt first when reading this, I thought to myself, no way trees make themselves for everything else, they make fruits for animals to distribute them, you could also think that maybe the fruit provides support when the seed drops, but why do some seeds come in fruits and others in non edible forms? I feel as though trees main objectives are to live and to reproduce. In order to do this, they need sunlight, CO2, water, soil, and seeds distributed. Do they do all of these things in a selfish way, and not because so much other life depends on it? I am not sure, maybe I should ask a tree, but we will never get a response, maybe through science one day, we can find out, whether the tree does it for everything else of for its own benefit.
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