Our first essay topic asks us to write about the vision or meaning behind one of Thoreau’s chapters in Walden. Having read Walden last year, I can remember quite well his illustrations of the land and what it produces for us in his chapter on beans (I cannot remember the exact name of the chapter). The short summary of this chapter is that Thoreau speaks of what the land can give to us provided we nourish it to the best of our abilities. Wendell Berry uses a different approach than Thoreau; however, his motive or vision behind writing “Solving for Pattern” is quite similar to Thoreau’s vision. They both emphasize that people need to cherish their land in order to solve the ever-increasing economic problems.
Berry discusses the need to look beyond the evident problems of our environment in order to see the underlying connective patterns. This idea relates to Burrough’s idea that people are looking to much at the surface detail and that they need to focus on seeing what is surrounding them. This idea was evident as we took the time to journal outside in class. Instead of only seeing the pesky fly buzzing in my face, I was able to see the ant colony beneath the bench and become aware of how they avoided my shadow on their quest for sustenance.
Thoreau immerses himself entirely in his environment in order to prove a point, similar to how Burroughs strives to become a part of his environment in order to truly see his surroundings. They both are searching for harmony and balance in the entirety of nature. They view the larger picture and how we can solve the issues in our economy versus just fixing a singular problem which will only make the other problems more evident. I saw the importance of this concept in Berry’s example of farming and how farmer’s are using up all of the nutrients in the soil by over-farming certain crops. I personally have seen a deterioration in the quality of the hay that my family buys for our animals due to this exact problem. Crops are becoming less nutritious because there are fewer of the necessary nutrients in the soil. Farmers believe that they can sow artificial nutrients into their land in order to solve this problem, but it is not effective in the long run. The idea of solving the larger problem to restore biological order is important in solving this issue of over-farming as well as in solving other ecological problems. People need to spend more time looking at the overall picture verses singular problems. Berry illustrates this in the farming scenario, Burroughs illustrates this idea in the need to truly see what is occurring in nature, and Thoreau illustrates this idea in how he chooses to immerse himself fully into his environment.
The Bigger Picture September 3, 2010
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