I grew up in the natural environment. With my dad working for the Kentucky chapter of The Nature Conservancy, most of my childhood memories revolve around long hikes in the woods, catching salamanders, and exploring the diversity and wonder of many of Kentucky's cherished streams and rivers. I am glorifying the landscape because it is in fact more beautiful than I can capture in words.
Every weekend during the summer months, I remember canoeing down the Green and Rockcastle Rivers, creating slip-n-slides out of mud on the banks, and only regretfully finding out later that they were embedded with poison ivy. At the age of thirteen, my parents bought a large farm in west-central Kentucky, where I spent almost every weekend surveying the forests and creating lean-to's from native cane in the bottomlands. I didn't think I was experiencing an atypical teenage lifestyle, if anything I was merely feeding my inner introvert instead of socializing with my peers.
Unbeknownst to me, those weekends and months surrounded by greenery fostered a relationship with the natural world, one that exists strongly for me today. I base my moral judgements about natural resources, environmental policy, food choice, etc on this relationship to nature. The responsibility I feel for the land comes from deeply knowing the profound beauty and simplicity of the area. Since it cannot talk for itself, as its loyal friend, I speak for it. Perhaps if this land-human relationship were fostered with our youth, more would grow up to be advocates of the environment.
My interest in conflict resolution, mediation and sustainable development utilizes this ethic nicely. If a solution to an argument can only be reached with compromise, then dilemmas facing off between environmental conservation and economic growth need to benefit the natural environment and human needs equally. Now, the definition of need versus human greed should be clarified, but you can contact me personally if you'd like to delve into that conversation.
