One for all and all for one

Whilst reading "From letter to Robert Southey", I was inspired for this week's blog by the line "and dancing to the moonlight Roundelay". This is an amazing way, to end my blogging experience for this class. Throughout the duration of the semester my blogs have been advocating environmental sustainability, prosperous environmental ethics, love and respect for nature etc. This blog hit home for me;Yes, as an Environmentalist, I advocate such practices, but without a unified world to actually carry out these practices, believe in these ethics and adopt a love and understanding for the environment, my efforts are null and void. Many a time, I forget the important human aspect in the equation of calculating a healthy environment, I forget that humanity is not just a part of the equation, but we are the solution. "We", not meaning a family, a town, a state, a country, a race, a hemisphere. "We" meaning every human being on this planet. To save our world, and make it a safe and abundant environment for future generations to live in, requires each and every one believing and acting out these environmentally friendly ideologies and practices. When I read the line, "dancing to the moonlight Roundelay", I illustrated in my mind, a person of every race, class or creed holding hands around the perimeter of the Earth, praising and thanking the Earth as a community for the sustaining and nurturing power of Nature. We are all in this together, the entire world is affected by America's greed, India's over population, Brazil's deforestation and Central Africa's diminishing biodiversity. Environmental problems exceed a country's soverign border. Let us hold hands, black, white, yellow or red, in the presence of nature, innovate, and work side by side to preserve our Mother, Mother Nature;

Himself in all and all things in himself

While reading "Frost at Midnight" I immeadiately thought of panenthiesm, The belief that God is one with nature; God is in nature. This belief encourages its followers to revere nature, as the God they pray to, serve, worship and love, is Nature. Prior to reading this poem, I adopted a pantheic view, which is the view that nature and God are identical, or that the nature is the only thing deserving of praise and reverence. Coleridge reminded me of the panentheitic ethic which I once adopted, the ethic which in my perspective, encourages environmental health, ecological balance, human flourishing, and equilibirum. When we see god in nature, we respect it, appreciate and hold it to a high esteem. Many people have a hard time "buying"this ethic, but I had no problem.

In various religions God is seen as the giver and sustainer of life; on planet Earth, mother nature which provides water, oxygen, nourishment is our sustainer of life. God is in nature sustaining us on a daily basis. As Coledridge states "Himself in all, and all things in himself. Great universal Teacher!" As the Christian religion teaches, that the Holy Spirit is within those who accept him, with that same breadth I believe that God is in nature and represents himself to us on a daily basis by sustaining us. "The Frost performs its secret ministry"

Often, when we do harm against nature, when we "sin" against nature we reap adverse effects on us and fellow human kind. Many religions, such as Christianity teach that when followers sin, there are consequences which have to be met. Could this be the reason for starvation? persistent and increasing carcinogenic compounds in our environment? epidemic? Just some food for thought!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

In my perspective, "From observations on the River Wye" sounded like an 18th Century National Geographic article, so I decided to dub the extract as Gilpin Geographic. In Gilpin Geographic, Gilpin describes a picturesque scene in a handbook for tourists, just as the National Geographic authors describe exotic, threatning, rare and unique physical features to us. I am very grateful for the National Geogrpahic's mission of bringing awareness to its readers about the world's land features, water bodies, human populations, animal species, mineral ore and many other aspects of our world which intrigue us. However, just as television channels shape our perspective of many things, the magazine can create a bias in the way which we view the various aspects and features of our world that are presented to us. The magazine creates a paradigm for the various aspects it presents; while reading the convincing literature, one cannot help but adopt the view of the author.

I am not very fond of someone else creating your own perspective, I think Nature and Humanity are essential aspects which one should have an individual experience with and create an individual perspective of, dependent on their experience. The National Geographic categorizes some natural phenomena as scary, horrid, terrible and others as beautiful, placid, quaint; describes some people as primitive and barbaric and others as futuristic and progressive. We as readers view the world through the lens of that particular author, not through our own retinas, and I deem that as problematic. We all have various life experiences and callings which evoke specific and unique emotions from within us. Our unique experience may be very similar or quite contrary to that of the specific author.

Gilpin gives a detailed description of the environment, his love for the ruins, his experience with the beggars, the various scenic views and vantage points among many other accounts. The reader may subconciously adhere to the perspective of Gilpin whilst engaging his literature. I strongly believe that we should experience Nature and Humanity for ourselves, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". We cannot turn our back to Nature and humanity and experience it through oval sepia lenses, we have to experience it for ourselves, thats the only way we will truly understand, appreciate and love!

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER