Humans readily love the other humans around them, but struggle to love humanity as a whole, particularly those who are far away and have different beliefs/cultures. Similarly, It's easier to love your local creek or grove of trees than it is to love nature as an abstract whole.
The ancient Stoics used their circle of concern idea to close the distance between humanity and the humans they loved, and something similar might work for closing the distance between nature as a whole and the individual bits of local nature we love.
The Stoics considered each person a limb of the same being, so harming another was like chopping off one of your limbs. Either extending this to nature or anthropomorphizing nature into something like the Gaia Hypothesis, while perhaps not factually accurate, does seem to allow this "closing of the distance."
I love this! My whole approach to photography and writing is with the idea of inspiring a sense of awe for nature that will hopefully lead to preservation and conservation. Your emphasis on starting locally is a great point!
Great piece. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized more how much I love being in nature. It’s important for wellbeing and reflection! 😊
Great read! One thing I'd like to add. Don't forget to look up: https://open.substack.com/pub/theeclecticstoic/p/light-pollution-a-blight-on-spirituality?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=tb7zr
Nice email :)
I love the parallel Brittany created here.
Humans readily love the other humans around them, but struggle to love humanity as a whole, particularly those who are far away and have different beliefs/cultures. Similarly, It's easier to love your local creek or grove of trees than it is to love nature as an abstract whole.
The ancient Stoics used their circle of concern idea to close the distance between humanity and the humans they loved, and something similar might work for closing the distance between nature as a whole and the individual bits of local nature we love.
The Stoics considered each person a limb of the same being, so harming another was like chopping off one of your limbs. Either extending this to nature or anthropomorphizing nature into something like the Gaia Hypothesis, while perhaps not factually accurate, does seem to allow this "closing of the distance."
I love this! My whole approach to photography and writing is with the idea of inspiring a sense of awe for nature that will hopefully lead to preservation and conservation. Your emphasis on starting locally is a great point!