The Beautiful & the Barbaric: Let's Stop Misleading the Nature Newbies

Okay, I will admit it, I can be a little too fuzzy wuzzy about the forest. I do it all the time on this blog, even knowing full well that the forest is not all cuddly and serene like the picture above. There is definitely a delicate balance between the wonders of the forest and its' barbarism. I know I'm not the only forest fluffy bunny out there, and me and all the rest of them probably have a lot to do with letting down the hopes and dreams of nature newbies when they finally conjure up enough fortitude to brave a decent stay in the forest. The scene above is what they expect to find when they hear all us nature nuts go on and on, but what they find is ....

....because in reality, nature really is a battle for the survival of the fittest. Animals attacking each other, plants and insects that can kill you, things that can fall from the trees and knock you unconscious....I could go on, and on, and on. This causes the nature newbies to go into instant shock: Where are the birds that follow me and sing songs to me as I stroll? Why is this trail so uneven and uphill? Why do I have to have to hear these old peoples' TV blasting The Wheel Of Fortune out of their RV at atomic levels?

And despite 52 applications a day of bug spray, they find themselves in some kind of stinging, biting insect inferno. All the cuddly forest creatures steal from them, and some just don't look downright friendly at all.

They wonder why parts of "the nature" are on fire or are quarantined to fight invasive species, which is another type of battle raging on in forests. (It's where new species which were not native to the new environment try and take over the species that was already there.)

And eventually nature newbies see deadly threats all around them everywhere, whether they are real....

or imagined....

Eventually they will begin to view the natural world in this way......

 ....which it is important that they don't. We nature nuts are in constant need of nature newbies to join with us and support our natural causes. So next time when we are blowing off at work parties about our mind-altering nature journeys, we might not want to take the whole serenity thing too far.

Something I would totally be dorky enough to bring to a work party.






We can mention some of the awesome ways that nature can defend itself with to break the ice gently. If you know people, and we all do, that would never step into a forest no matter what, you could always bring up the fact that.....

Whatever we've got to do to convince these people, it's worth it. It we fail to convince the nature haters, they will continue to create stupid stuff like this.

So nature nuts unite! Together we can show everyone that yes, nature has it's dangers and can seem barbaric. But nothing can reproduce the peace and clarity that a forest provides. Yes, oceans can be a symbol of serenity, but you can die a horrible drowning death in one. Forests calm your post-modern, information-age stress like no other place on earth. The sounds of the forest provide a soothing musical score that no new age musician can ever compete with.  Awww......the sounds of nature.....