Shoes, Fisher Cats, and Land Occupation, by Amanda Bonnette-Kim

I am not a materialistic person.  That being said I do own 14 pairs of shoes, here at school.  I probably own 5 or 6 other pairs at home is Massachusetts.  This is an impressive feet, even for a girl.  To defend myself I tell my guy friends “it’s a girl thing,” while I tell my girl friends “well, I only a few purses,” and I tell both parties “but I wear all of them.”  To make this point I try to wear at least 3 different pairs each week.  Now I am going to be honest, I do own a ridiculous amount of shoes and it is very trivial of me to have to defend myself in such a way.  But have not humans been doing just that throughout all of history?  Have we not fought and defended our rights to own something that is essential to everyday life, yet the true meaning is because we are materialistic.

Aldo Leopold realized this, and is a topic that he often touched upon in his writing.  He was constantly stating that we, as humans, had no right to claim the earth for ourselves.  Leopold knew that you could mark as many boundaries as you like on a map, but that those lines held no meaning to the true inhabitants of the earth, the animals.  They come and go as they wish, such as the migrating birds, and state their claim to the earth as much as the humans do.  Because we have invaded into their home so much, birds now angrily complain to us about this, and to let us know that the branch they are occupying is their branch.  I hear many of these proclamations of territory outside my window in late winter/early spring back home.  Usually at 5 in the morning, or earlier.  Overtime I have grown immune to these birdcalls and ignore them, which is not a good thing.  We have all become what Leopold feared, ignorant to nature.  We believe that we are the master of the earth, not a fellow occupant.

Now, I may own a lot of shoes but one thing my family has never really owned is a house and the land it occupies.  Both of my parents are United Methodist pastors and we live in a parsonage.  A parsonage is a house that is provided to the pastor and their family, but it is owned by the church.  If we ever want to make a big change to our yard or house we have to have it approved by the church.  My friends find it weird that we cannot even put in a fence, but I am use to it.  I have lived in several parsonages growing up and I am use to these regulations.  To me they are normal.  I think because of this I can understand easily where Leopold is coming from about us not truly owning the land because I never have.  I actually find it weird when people talk about “their” land.  An example of this is a conversation I had over the summer with one of my best friends.  She was telling me a story about how her cousin did not believe that a fisher cat was a real animal and how that the very next day in her woods.  I remember thinking, “how can you own the woods?”  I know that she did not literally mean that she owned the whole woods behind her house, but that she was referring to the section of woods that was on her land.  But the idea is still funny to me.  Leopold is not the only one that has tried to spread the message that we do not own the earth; Disney has spread this message as well.

As we sat in my little nature room, my friend Teresa and I began to serenade each other with songs from Pocahontas.   We mainly sung “River bend” and “Colors of the Wind” but it suited the situation and location.  As we sang I realized how the themes of the movie and the songs applied to what we have been learning in class.  The whole point of “Colors of the Wind” is Pocahontas trying to convince John Smith that the English were being foolish and that you could not own the earth; that it belonged to every living being as well.  “River Bend” is about exploring your options and looking at what is around you, I feel like these journal entries can be associated with this song.

As humans, we tend to ruin what we touch or try to control.  Well, ruin is sometimes too harsh of a word.  It is more like we make it less pure.  Let us take water as an example.  In front of me the water is flowing slowly and rushing swiftly down a small waterfall that is created by the dam.  Even in nature water is never constant, it is always changing and adapting to the environment.  It flows freely pure and clean.  Gazing out over the creek has a calming effect.  Then I look to my right and see a pool of water that looks like the color of rust.  Not as calming. But humans have changed water is other ways as well.  We have taken a force that does not like to be contained, and bottled it.  This now bottled water takes on the chemicals from it plastic container and uses the toxins against us as we ingest it as a form of payback.  Even if you leave bottled water on the shelf for a long time it develops a funny taste, water is not supposed to have a flavor other than clean.  I am going to leave you with one question to reflect on. What are we doing to the earth that we are even making water less pure?

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