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"Ecology equals living minus Nature, plus consciousness." This is the first sentence of Morton's last paragraph in his introduction to The Ecological Thought. I start here because I am unsure if I understand what this means. He capitalizes Nature, and says that nature is "like a reflection, we can never actually reach it and touch it and belong to it". How is nature separate from ecology? Isn't our search for "Nature" a driving force in our modern consciousness, living, and thought that define ecology? Our fascination with Nature connects our society to issues of the environment and our impact on it. How does one subtract nature from life and from consciousness? Perhaps my definition of nature is different from his meaning of Nature. He says that "what we call 'nature' is a 'denatured', unnatural, uncanny sequence of mutations and catastrophic events". But isn't this ideal and unattainable concept of Nature something that defines us as humans and defines our interactions with the environment? I suppose I am getting caught up in a definition. Perhaps the "artificial construct" of Nature is a counterthought to ecology?

As much as I loved bell hooks' way of thinking about home and culture of belonging, it was somewhat comforting to see that people like Morton do not necessarily agree with that view of home/place - and it was also very confusing. For while I haven't experienced a culture of belonging first-hand, I want to believe such a thing is possible, and attainable for me. And at the same time, I am conscious of the very legitimate points made by Martin and Mohanty, who (from what I could gather from their complex language and sentence structures) argue that any community of sameness and comfort inherently shuts out others and makes oppression possible. Which sucks (to put it more bluntly). I can only assume that more oppression (akin to the Ku Klux Klan) is the last thing bell hooks would want, so how can I reconcile both of these ideas? And how does Morton's fit in, his criticism of "fixation on a place"? Maybe all that matters (to me) is how each of these arguments fits into my own understanding of home, place, and community as these things relate to environmentalism/social justice. For example, a community that is actively working to fight oppression might, on the way, exclude some voices, but if they are working hard to be anti-opressive (which, honestly many enviro-justice communities aren't, or think they are but get criticized for not doing enough) and simultaneously trying to end oppression of certain groups of people and/or the environment, maybe that's ok.

Morton had me at Wall•E. That right there was and remains to this day one of my favorite Pixar movies (though I still love you, Toy Story and The Incredibles) if only for the ecological message. It fascinated me that this movie, which contained almost zero dialogue except for the ubiquitous John Ratzenberger, a Hal-like sentient steering wheel, and an old tape of Hello, Dolly could explain to the masses the importance of an ecological conscience much more easily and accessibly than any explanation I had ever offered. I had tried to tell people for years to pay attention to what people have done and continue to do to the planet, gave examples of contemporary disasters, and pointed out the consequences social, political, and enconomic that such degradation has engendered, but most often I was met with condescencion, blank stares, and sometimes outright hostility. Most Texans, I discovered, don't take kindly to someone telling them why their gas guzzling pickup truck might be a bad thing for the planet.

Like Morton, I too think that the ecological thought is more than just taking the scientific stand and that it's more than just global warming, recycling, and solar power. To be environmentally aware is to take everything in our sorroundings into effect. Not only the ecosytem and our connection with the living and non living aspects of it, but also the relationships we build, the art, and awareness. I don't think an environmentalist should take offense or feel at all like we're degrading the meaning or importance of the term "environment". If anything, they should agree with what Timothy says, "Ecology includes all the ways we imagine how we live together." Nature exists in all different types of ways and humans are not going anywhere for a long time. Rather than creating boundaries and making everything seem like it belongs in a certain category, we should push for coexistence. 

Reading Morton's introduction to his text "The Ecological Thought", I was especially struck by the fact that he kept referring to this way of thinking as "Dark Ecology" or an infection or virus that ultimately " affects all aspects of life, culture, and society" (11). Morton also mentions that "a truly ecological reading practice would think the environment beyond rigid conceptual categories--it would include as much as possible of the radical openness of the ecological thought" (11). I believe this relates to what he says on later in the text--"Fixation on place impedes a truly ecological view" (26). It is important to cosider the fact the ecological thought is all encompassing of different areas of thinking as well as interactions between people and between people and their environment. Reading this text reminded me of a comment that Michael made in Camden "the environment is all around us". How can we get people to care about holding a truly ecological thought and taking care of the environment when it is "not in their backyard?" One quote by Abraham Joshua Heschel that has always resonated with me is that "few are quilty, but all are responsible". Perhaps, having more people acknowledge the ecological thought will get them to understand the role they have in protecting the environment. 

View of Lake Delavan

House that looks similar to my old one

Delavan Lake Yacht Club where I attended camp

When I was first born my family bought a house up in Wisconsin along Lake Delavan. My family and I would drive the two hours from Chicago to Delavan and drive down narrow dirt roads until we finally reached the home. The house was considered to be located on the Island of Lake Delavan. The house was located in a somewhat secluded area with only 2 houses located in the block of land. Even though there weren’t many people around for me to play with I still enjoyed exploring the areas around my house and I still had my neighbors. My sister and I would visit our neighbors often because the family had a son who was roughly my age. We would either play in the house or go outside and explore.

            To begin, a quote from the ecology of imagination in childhood by Edith Cobb: “The child’s ecological sense of continuity with nature is not what is generally known as mystical.  It is, I believe, basically aesthetic and infused with joy in the power to know and to be.  These equal, for the child, a sense of the power to make...”

 It is strange to realize that in my first essay for a course on Eco-literacy, an essay on home and belonging, I never once entertained the idea of the environment, or the ‘outdoors’, as home. I unearthed one of my homes, “the body as home”. However, the body as home is not just one home, but many different factors coming together to form a whole. Your body encompasses your physical being, your consciousness, your emotions, your memory, where you have been and where you are going. I suppose that nature is in intrinsic part of the whole of ones body, and how perhaps the body is not the only home. For there two things that are always with me: my body, and the environment.

Sunnyside, Houston, TX

When I was four, I started school and had to go to the afternoon session of Pre Kindergarten. Rather than spending my mornings watching PBS kids, I’d walk around my neighborhood with my grandma and our two-seat stroller looking into people’s trash bags, searching for aluminum cans. We’d carry big black trash bags in the stroller making it easier for us to walk around and keep piling on the cans inside the trash bags. If we had a good day, we’d fill two trash bags and come home to a rinse with the water hose and climb back into bed as we both watched the telenovela and had pan dulce with cola-cola for breakfast.

I started to explore my community and get to know the people around us by picking at people’s trash. I didn’t think there was anything bad with it. No one would point or stare. If anything, our friends around the neighborhood would already have separated the aluminum cans from the rest of the trash and saved us the time and effort. My grandmother wasn’t an American Citizen or Resident at the time, but she had to make money some way or another because my grandfather and her couldn’t support a house full of seven men and three daughters, plus a new granddaughter.