Abstract:
Is nature really right outside the window? When someone says, "I'm going to go enjoy the Great Outdoors this weekend," everyone knows that they don't mean their backyard; they mean the lake or the mountains or the cabin up north. Where, along the path, lies the threshold between the human realm and the natural realm? This threshold, either perceived or real, exists between the world of human artifacts and the natural world. What signifies the change? To quote Mary Catherine Bateson from her essay: 'On the Naturalness of Things,' "Everything is natural; ifit weren't, it wouldn't be."· She is right, of course, but there is a spiritual connection people perceive with nature that this quote cannot quite address. It is the individual relationship with nature that drives the dichotomy between natural and artificial. Everything is natural, yes, but human culture is seen as apart from nature. Perhaps it is in search of an intimacy with nature that nature is sought, and in this pursuit, culture serves only as an interference in a private relationship.
