[Odonata-l] More on getting people outside

[tmorse@teleport.com]

Chances are all of you are familiar with the book Last Child in the Woods, 
by Richard Louv, (ISBN 1565125223) which addresses "nature deficit 
disorder," why it exists, and what might be done about it.  I mention it 
anyway, in case someone reading this hasn't.

Since we're sharing personal stories, I grew up in Queens, a borough of 
New York City, in the 1950s and early 60s.  Although my neighborhood was 
dominated by apartment buildings, there was a nice centripetal space 
inside the ring of buildings that included grass, hedges, and trees.  
Although we didn't have snakes, frogs, or dragonflies, there were legions of 
bees and lightning bugs, both of which we kids loved to catch in jars, then 
release.  The attraction of lightning bugs in a jar is easy to understand.  I'm 
not sure why we enjoyed catching bees so much, but I remember vividly 
their distinctive smell.  Perhaps that was a factor.

In grade school, upper level students were required to join a club that met 
during final period.  In fourth grade, I got into the nature club.  It met 
indoors, but we kept terraria, aquaria, and plants.  This was a nice 
supplement to the limited outdoor nature opportunities we had in this urban 
setting.  In summer, our family went to the Long Island shore each day.  My 
sister and I brought home fiddler crabs to keep as pets, along with the 
obligatory dime store turtles.  We may not have learned a huge amount 
from these captives, but we did get to express and reinforce our innate (?) 
biophilia.

I attended high school and college in rural upstate New York, but didn't 
become serious about natural history until I moved to Austin, Texas, a city 
with lots of nature in it, at least in the 1970s.  The rest is history.

A number of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons come to mind.  In one, the title 
characters are looking at a star-filled skies:

Calvin: Look at all the stars!  The Universe just goes on forever and ever.

Hobbes: It kind of makes you wonder why man considers himself such a 
big screaming deal.

Calvin (sitting in front of the television): That's why we stay inside with our 
appliances.

Many Calvin and Hobbes cartoons deal with a modern child's joy in and 
ambivalence about nature.

Terry Morse
*
"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level 
with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of it plain."  -- Henry David 
Thoreau, 1817-1862, Journal, October 22, 1839.  

"Nature is so uncomfortable. Grass is hard and lumpy and damp, and full of 
dreadful insects."  -- Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying (1909).



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