Copyright 2002
Wilderness Drum, Inc.
All rights reserved

Closer to the Earth
Steve Beyer

Introduction Before you leave home Fears and prohibitions Beliefs Your senses Asking permission Sensory powers Camera walk Being something else Changing perspective "Artist Unknown" Thinking about nature On not naming things Gratitude Gifts from the wilderness Writing about nature Getting close Watching quietly One creature Decomposers Wilderness symphony Competency

Fears and Prohibitions

One of the things that affects our relation to the natural world are fears and prohibitions about nature, often dating back to our childhood. Many of us can remember all sorts of parental commands: Don't get dirty. Don't get wet. Don't track mud. Don't spoil your clothes. If your feet get wet, you'll catch cold and die.

Getting close to nature often involves getting dirty, wet, and muddy. Any fears about this should be examined very carefully, and we should separate rational concerns from old leftover childhood prohibitions.

Fears of the natural world often center on animals. People may have given you dark warnings about snakes, or spiders, or scorpions, or wolves, or crocodiles, or albino alligators, or rabid squirrels. Some people get nervous about certain animals without any outside help. I must confess to a strong and probably irrational dislike for scorpions. This does not mean that animals in nature are all safe and cuddly. But it means that we must be careful to separate rational concerns from mere prejudices.

Consider how you really feel about the natural world. To some people, the wilderness represents freedom, spontaneity, wonder, and beauty. To others, the wilderness represents dirt, danger, loss of control, lack of form, violence, and the alien. European culture has often drawn a distinction between the ordered, stable, and hierarchical life of town and farm and the undomesticated, unfenced, uncultivated, and uncivilized wilderness. How have these dichotomies affected your thinking about the wilderness?

What bothers you about being in the wilderness? Defecating into a hole in the ground? Getting dirty? Sleeping on the ground? Feeling exposed and vulnerable? Being alone in the dark at night? Think about why these things bother you. What do these concerns tell you about your relationship to the wild? How do you go about overcoming them?

When you told friends or family that you were going out into the wilderness, what concerns did they express? What did they warn you about? Given what you know about the natural world, were these fears and concerns rational and reasonable?

What are your own fears about the wilderness? Share your fears with others. Accept their fears unconditionally, and state your own fears honestly. If the fears and concerns contain some truth, isolate that portion and think about it. How dangerous is it? How would you go about rationally reducing the risk? Discuss what you can all do to help each other make it easier to deal with the problem.

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