Maggie Landon
9-19-09
Naturalist Essay
I decided to walk down a pathway that leads down to Lake Michigan. Living in Chicago, one might think there would not be a lot of nature but I encountered trees, plants, grass, dirt, birds and many bugs. I rarely take walks around the city. Usually, I am in a rush to get to class, work or home so I never take the time to study my surroundings and the nature that is included in it. On this particular walk, I did take the time to look around myself and was disappointed at all of the litter that I saw. People carelessly throw paper, wrappers and cigarette buts right on the ground. I rarely notice all of this litter but I did today.
I enjoy all the nature that surrounds me. I always feel revitalized when I am outside in nature. I love breathing in the fresh air and soaking up the sun. I feel healthier when I am outside in nature as opposed to cramped up in my apartment.
Nature interacts with me immensely on a daily basis. My moods are affected a lot by the weather. I am usually much happier if the weather is nice outside. I enjoy the sunshine and I feel like nature comes to life when the weather is nice instead of cloudy and rainy. The trees seem greener and there are animals out and about. When it is cloudy or rainy nature always seems dismal. Everything is grey and the trees and animals don’t seem as lively. When the weather is bad my mood changes; sometimes I get a little sad because of it.
I went on my walk after reading Kuo’s writing and I was thinking about his work a lot so I think my walk was more like the interaction described in his writing. I noticed how the trees were planted in the ground and how man-made they look. There is a perfect cut hole for the trunk of the tree and there are big metal grates surrounding the trees. I always wondered why these trees were even planted, but after reading Kuo’s writing I understand. The trees were planted to make the neighborhoods look nicer and to hopefully make people have more pleasant interactions with each other, according to Kuo’s study. I agree that the trees do just that, and it is nice to see them planted around my neighborhood.
Kuo’s writing was an actual study that was performed about trees and their effect on people and neighborhoods whereas Muir’s writing was a narrative describing nature using various metaphors.