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Living in the countryside is the same as living in the city
Is living in the countryside better
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I rush through my bowl of Cinnamon Life or Cheerios or whatever in a smaller than average kitchen in a home that definitely falls under what is considered an average value in a location that is definitely considered less than optimal. There was no reason for me to waste time by enjoying the savory taste of kids’ breakfast cereal this morning – or any morning for that matter, for today and many more to come; the Great Outdoors beckoned my attention. Come to think of it, every day as a child I was lured, pulled, tempted to exit the indoors for the splendid out-of-doors.
Though I didn’t know it then, the three acres of land where I spent the first 17 years of my life seemingly fell into my parents’ hands in a rather awkward way. While I only heard the story once while young, I believed it happened something like this: First, due to the extremely weird luck that there was a 400 acre parcel of land that had one of its corners cut by a snowmobile trail and, second, due to the sheer geographical instance that placed that cut corner at the intersection of 3 counties (Emmet, Cheboygan, and Charlevoix), and, third, that through some weird communication of two potential land buyers (my father being one of them) an agreement was reached that sold 397 acres to the soon-to-be-neighbor and the corner 3 acres to my father. But whatever happened, my family was granted this beautiful parcel in the very southeast corner of Emmet County, which thankfully, is just inside the Petoskey School District (this being an advantage I only realize today).
So there it was – this amazing triangle of a parcel that my parents struggled to get electricity and telephone lines to. For some reason, I think they had to pay for it but I don’t recall. The ...
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...des property. It provides security. It provides experience. And most importantly, it provides life. My life as child was molded by the landscape in which I grew up. My knowledge of trees, plants, birds, and insects was developed so early in life because land was like an educational workshop on nature. I didn’t fear snakes, bees, or large mammals because we shared that land. I hope that someday my children will have the opportunity along with the curiosity and excitement to explore land for what it is: everything. Land is not just property bounded in a geographic place. Land is more. It is that place where you can go back to in memory and in dream. It is some place that is triggered by a smell or emotion. In essence, it is life and all of my great memories return to three secluded acres in Northern Michigan that will always, no matter what, remain home.
A New Kind of Dreaming is a novel written by Anthony Eaton, about a teenage boy, Jamie Riley, being referred to rural Western Australia where, he meets new friends, enemies and also discovers a shocking secret about the towns head police officer. The pressure to find out the secret puts Jamie in a great deal of trouble, from being frightened by the police, blamed for a fire and vandalism offences and even going missing in the desert. The characters have authority or are defenceless.
There is this feeling we all experience when we step away from the chaos of rushing cars, infrastructure, and artificial lights, and we step into nature. Some describe it as bliss, comfort, excitement, pleasure or just pure happiness. This is the answer to the question Paul Bloom asks “Why should we care about nature?” in his article “Natural Happiness.” Paul goes through this process in which he uncovers the fact that “real natural habitats provide significant sources of pleasure for modern humans”, regardless of our need for food, clean water, and air. There are 3 main arguments that Paul makes in this article that I find particularly interesting, they include: “Our hunger for the natural is everywhere. In many regards our species has already kissed nature goodbye, and we are better off for it. There is a considerable mismatch between
After the once-ler moves on to the land and begins to utilize it for production of material objects, there is a sharp increase in demand for the thneeds produced by the truffula trees. The truffula thneeds may cause people in the mystical world of The Lorax to feel connected to nature, though in reality their consumption is leading the truffula trees to their demise. The same could be said for real-world consumption practices, “. . . the kind of person who has appreciated nature is likely to be the kind of person who has consumed more nature than most” (Price). While reading, children will be able to relate consumption practices to their own lives. For example, the new toy that they’ve wanted, or the sweater that their mom bought for them. This connection helps kids to see that the material items that they use and enjoy actually come from somewhere, they don’t just appear out of
cold, harsh, wintry days, when my brothers and sister and I trudged home from school burdened down by the silence and frigidity of our long trek from the main road, down the hill to our shabby-looking house. More rundown than any of our classmates’ houses. In winter my mother’s riotous flowers would be absent, and the shack stood revealed for what it was. A gray, decaying...
...a rural farming community in the 19th century South where accents are thick and homes are few and far between. The young girl’s family is privileged enough to own a buggy whereas the Slumps own a simple wagon. The Slumps have a dirt floor to which clearly exemplifies the poor living conditions that they survive in. The girl’s father not only owns better equipment but also has a shed to which he can store the items in to keep them from being exposed to the elements. The little girl acknowledges the diversities between their two lives but doesn’t consider the Slumps as inferior people simply because they live an austere lifestyle. Her concern, as far as she’s concerned, is that the Slumps sleep under the stars, pick plums, and make jelly: a task that is unfamiliar and exciting to her to which she can merely examine from afar with a desire to partake in the amusement.
9). Although Thoreau’s goal was a life of simplicity, he was not aiming for a life free from pleasures. He merely wished “not … to live what was not life” (Thoreau 135). This meant spending time enjoying nature and doing things for himself, but not everything. Solnit asserts that one can simultaneously have a “passion for justice” while finding “pleasure in small things” (“The Thoreau Problem par. 9). Just as Thoreau can seclude himself in his cabin to contemplate the true meaning of life, so too can he wander into town to get a home cooked meal and clean laundry. His return to town has no effect on the findings he gathers about the importance of simplicity, independence, and nature. By drawing this parallel and falsifying the many misconceptions held against Thoreau, Solnit allows the ideas of Thoreau and the value of such ideas to be accessible to readers in this
The owners hadn’t maintained their fence rows or the land they had. During first month we were there we had taken out at least two hundred fence post and removed at least five miles of barbwire which had only become rotten with vines and othe...
A sense of place is the ideology that people possess when they feel that they belong to a given surrounding. Therefore, through their existence and a sense of belonging on a given environment, people do tend to have a special connection with their immediate surroundings, and therefore, they will do everything to protect their habitat. This, in a sense, is instrumental in affecting the positionality of people with such belonging to one given
Environmental advocate and cofounder of Eatingliberally.org, Kerry Trueman, in her response to Stephen Budiansky’s Math Lessons for Locavores, titled, The Myth of the Rabid Locavore, originally published in the Huffington Post, addresses the topic of different ways of purchasing food and its impact on the world. In her response, she argues that Budiansky portrayal of the Local Food Movement is very inaccurate and that individuals should be more environmentally conscious. Trueman supports her claim first by using strong diction towards different aspects of Budinsky essay, second by emphasizes the extent to which his reasoning falls flat, and lastly by explaining her own point with the use of proper timing. More specifically, she criticizes many
Leopold defends his position the advent of a new ethical development, one that deals with humans’ relations to the land and its necessity. This relationship is defined as the land ethic, this concept holds to a central component referred to as the ecological consciousness. The ecological consciousness is not a vague ideal, but one that is not recognized in modern society. It reflects a certainty of individual responsibility for the health and preservation of the land upon which we live, and all of its components. If the health of the land is upheld, its capacity of self-renewal and regeneration is maintained as well. To date, conservation has been our sole effort to understand and preserve this capacity. Leopold holds that if the mainstream embraces his ideals of a land ethic and an ecological consciousness, the beauty, stability and integrity of our world will be preserved.
I was at my grandmother’s lake property on Strawberry Lake. For the past few years, I had spent a majority of my summer vacation at this property with my grandmother. When she first bought the property years prior, it consisted of a barebones trailer
She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun” (41). The land is playing the sweetest music, its orchestrating sounds of contentment. The land is expressing itself by singing sweet sounds through the rolling hills. Can land and nature be defined? Land is alive, it shines a light onto something that can seem to be dead, but to the right eyes and ears, sound like a symphony. Alexandra says, “She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun” (41). The land can express and hold truths. The land shows the raw truth that Alexandra can relate with. She can find her heart flying with the quail, laying in the plover or with all the tiny wild creatures. It can represent the beautiful things that are about to come into her life. The land is her heart, she finds so much beauty in the raw truth and the essence of wild
Land as a resource includes unique fertility and mineral deposits, topography, climate, water and vegetation. Trees grown are not categorized as land because they have been deliberately grown; on the other hand, trees in a natural rainforest are a natural resource and thus classify as land. The reward for letting others use the land is called rent. Labor: In order to produce the things, a human resource must be used. Human resources consist of the productive aid of labor made by individuals who work—for instance, miners, artists, and professional baseball players.
'Better to live happy and die poor, than to live rich and die wretched' seems to be the general notion about the place, as an air of optimism makes its way across the playground. It is a Friday morning and the weekend seems so close. It can almost be tasted and the thought of a long, interminable, uneding sleep is a solace that constructs this impeccable scene.
Since the beginning of time, the human race has been closely affiliated with nature. Our early ancestors didn’t have houses— they lived in tents, caves, and other forms of natural shelter. As the evolution of lifestyle progressed to be what we know it today, people settled down in houses they built on farms, or in small towns. These grew to be cities, and eventually countries. As a population, we have moved away from this lifestyle immersed in nature, especially in the last few decades. We now spend most of our time indoors, doing homework or watching television; not experiencing nature. The great outdoors have so many unrealized benefits, but we don’t take advantage of them or experience them as much as we should.