Discover Non-virtual Reality

Chris took the plunge this year (perhaps a holdover from his days on the swimming and diving teams at Peoria Central High). Our son transferred to Northern Michigan University at Marquette from Western Illinois. It’s a significant transition, trading the rolling hills and farm fields of Macomb for the wild and windy shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Dropping him off at school was a novel experience. After hauling belongings, books, and mementos five hundred miles to a new apartment, and after meeting a new semester’s roommates, we set out to explore the immediate area.

A nearby hiking trail put me in mind of Longfellow’s “Evangeline.”

“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pine and the hemlock…” We emerged from primeval woods to encounter wind and waves and the brilliant deep blue of Superior’s “shining big sea water.” The prevailing wind sweeps across a vast expanse, spawning swells that surge and splash against the rugged rocky shore at Presque Isle. The pines and hemlock are windblown and weathered, massive and majestic.

The rocks are igneous, betraying ancient volcanic origin. Veins of quartz had intruded into cracks in cooled lava sometime in the distant past, leaving white streaks across a dark cliff face as well as under foot. Glaciation and constant wave action over millennia have smoothed and rounded the rock. This place grabs your attention and speaks of age old forces at work, which are far beyond our human contrived world. In our world we too often fuss and focus on immediate dividends and short term profits. In a place like this, you almost subconsciously think about the depth of time. Here you can gaze into that temporal abyss much more clearly.

This experience is surprisingly near the campus; for Chris, perhaps a two or three mile bike ride (it should be called ‘Presque Penninsula’). The trails at Presque Isle get plenty of use. People are drawn to this place of unique beauty and serenity. We encountered hikers, picnickers, bikers, automobile sight seers, wind surfers, swimmers, and even students sprawled there doing homework. In one place there were chairs set up for a wedding.

To the west of Marquette we found another unique hiking opportunity. It’s called the Sugarloaf Mountain trail. It’s a bit of a climb from the car, including several stairways, but is well worth it. Unlike the Presque Isle experience at the shore of Lake Superior, this trail takes you through a forest to the top of a rocky prominence from which you can see all of the city of Marquette beneath you, as well as a sweeping vista of a substantial portion of Lake Superior. At the summit is a stone obelisk built by boy scouts to honor their leader who had been killed in battle during WW1. To my surprise he had served in the same unit I had, the 32nd Division.

We’ve all had an experience of natural beauty that caused us to stop and pause. It may have been a vista, a moonrise on a misty evening, a meadow filled with wildflowers, a waterfall, a ‘V’ of migrating geese, or a vibrant sunset reflected on placid water. On some level the age old and invisible forces at work make their presence known.

Writer, Edward Abbey very artfully conveyed the value of experiencing and learning from nature, in his book, “Desert Solitaire.” He was referring to Delicate Arch (in Arches National Park) but his description interprets the essence of unique and aesthetic encounters with wilderness everywhere.

“A weird, lovely, fantastic object out of nature like Delicate Arch has the curious ability to remind us – like rock and sunlight and wind and wilderness – that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which surrounds and sustains the little world of men as sea and sky surround and sustain a ship. The shock of the real. For a little while we are again able to see, as the child sees, a world of marvels. …If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies, I will venture, in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us to a reawakened awareness of the wonderful — that which is full of wonder.”

We are all born with an affinity for nature, for flora and fauna, according to Ecologist, Dr. E.O.Wilson. In fact Wilson wrote a book, “Biophilia” on this topic. Access to natural beauty; to the life that surrounds us, is a great stimulus and can motivate us to learn more, to conserve, or just to enjoy our natural environment.

Unfortunately children today, on average, spend a full hour less time outdoors, as compared to when Chris was a toddler. Visitation at National Parks is in decline (25 percent since 1987). Nature based activities are giving way to sedentary sit-at-home ‘non-activities.’

Why? “Videophilia.” is a noun coined by Oliver R.W. Pergams, a biology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Patricia A. Zaradic, a research associate at Stroud Water Research Center. Simply stated, it refers to love of electronics.

“If you’re spending an hour or more a day on these things, you’ve got to give something up,” Pergams said. It’s simply a matter of priority.

Another phrase was coined to describe a similar condition, “Nature Deficit Disorder.” Here again as the name implies, this refers to kids nowadays spending a great deal of their free time indoors.

What is important enough for you to dedicate your time? Past studies have shown that spending extended time in nature helps foster what the two authors call “environmentally responsible behavior.” The converse is very likely also true. “If people are less interested in nature, they’re going to become less interested in conservation,” Pergams said. “That’s my concern and worry.”

The challenge is pretty straight forward. Find interesting natural areas, turn off the TV, the computer, the video game, and venture forth.