A field note on tenacity and interdependence
A flower metaphor might seem cliché, but these flowers really are tough, together
[Bear with me, there’s a so what to the intro musings here. Or, if you’re not feeling contemplative about the nature of nature writing, you can just jump to the large photo below, and read on from there.]
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I don’t write about it much, but I’ve been a nature writer longer than any other type of writer. There are a host of ways to think about “nature writing,” including third-person observations of nature, an emphasis on conveying facts, and noticing seasonal or daily nuances of the ecosystem around us. A lot of nature writing, for centuries or longer, has also had a very personal layer to it. So, a lot of nature writing could easily also be considered memoir or reported memoir. You’ve almost certainly read something that wove together a person’s experience, their nature observations, and some bigger idea about the cosmos, the meaning of life, or the state of society. Every “generation” of writers seems to have its luminary nature writers. Some of those folks are famous or infamous for …