Noah Mackinnon

Hi and Welcome to my blog! My name is Noah Mackinnon and I am a Third year student in the Environmental Management program! Opinions expressed here are totally my own and are in no way linked to the opinions of the University of Guelphs beliefs or opinions. Lets talk about nature!

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Nature, Tools, and Interpretation

As I have developed, and will continue developing as a nature interpreter, not much has changed with my beliefs. I believe that respecting nature and people is key in living your life to its fullest. Without getting into too much detail on how my personal compass works, that is as simple as a description as I can give. Although the basic concept seems quite simple, most people I meet on a daily basis seem to miss it. I see people constantly walking all over natural spaces, animals, and other people with no care for how it effects them.

I feel as though my responsibility, every chance I get as an interpreter, is to enforce these basic principles using the concepts of nature interpretation. The knowledge that I have gained through this course and the experiences associated with it will lend themselves to my future ability to guide people. In particular, it is the different interpretive techniques that I have learned which I intend to utilize.

Orienteering

Orienteering is a hands-on method to learning about nature. Using a compass and a map is a great way to become familiar with the layout of natural spaces. Using a map you can learn to recognize the slopes and hills of a landscape, the lakes and streams, and the marshes and forests of any park, city, or rural area. Coupled with habitat education this can be an extremely educational activity, and can turn into a valuable survival skill and recreational activity for any interested participant. For those who want to learn about nature but would like a somewhat rigid process, becoming familiar with maps and compasses is the perfect route. Using this method to explore nature can help lead you home, physically and even mentally. Learning to take control of a situation and use limited resources to accomplish a goal will lead to self confidence that will transfer to other aspects of a persons’ life. This will lead to personal development in their appreciation for nature, and their transferable skills.

Photography

Photography is an interesting thing for me to talk about since I personally suck at it. Despite this, I know it can be a fabulous technique to appreciate the beautiful view of nature and even share it with others. I have always been on the receiving end of this type of technique. Those of us who are gifted enough to take these perfect photographs of amazing views are so valuable here. It is those people who allow the rest of us to see and appreciate nature through their eyes. Teaching people the value of nature through aesthetic beauty is just one basic approach that can be used on people new to experiencing nature.

The Story

Probably my favourite way to get people engaged with nature is to explain the amazing story behind so many natural things. From the life struggles of trees, to the family struggles of a herd of deer surviving in the wild, there is a story behind everything. It is learning this story, and the history behind all of these complex things, that will give people appreciation for the natural world around them. Seeing the story in even the most simple of things can add so much value to it for even the least nature-involved people out there. This is the most powerful tool I’ve found this semester to help guide people through nature interpretation.

The Journey

No matter what techniques an interpreter uses, the most important thing for any nature adventure is the journey. Not just your stereotypic saying about how the journey is more valuable than the destination – it’s who you journey with, and what you learn along the way. Going out with classmates, family, or even just with your own thoughts allows for so much development of the human mind. As an interpreter it is important to encourage people to make time for even the smallest walk down an urban trail.

With all of these techniques and pieces of knowledge I have adopted from this course, I am sure that I will be able to aid people in their journey through experiencing nature for themselves. Although I’m not sure how often I will get the opportunity to create organized nature walks or programs, I do know that I will help people any chance I get. It is my responsibility as a person with this knowledge to help guide people through their journey. It is also my responsibility to remember my place in their journey. I know I need to leave my personal beliefs out of it, and make sure any techniques I use are appropriate for the people I am trying to help. If I do this I am confident that I will be able to help people, even in the smallest of ways.

I will continue to try and help people in any little way possible, and this course will prove invaluable in my future journey as a nature interpreter!

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Hi Courtney.

I think you mentioned some great ways in which we can get people to become engaged with their natural surroundings, particularly by way of photography and stories.

In some of my previous blogs, I talked about the importance of media with regards to getting people involved. In the real world, most people have absolutely no interest in reading scientific papers (including me for the most part. Rather, people become much more engaged when they have something to look at.

 In my blogs, I talked a lot about movies and television as a potential source of inspiration for people wanting to get more involved in the world of nature. Photography is another great example of this! Many of us can’t get to the places we really want to see in the world and never will get to, but photography is a great manner in which we can at least experience it in some form and become inspired by it.

Stories are also a great way of helping other become more involved in nature. For example the lab we went on in the arboretum was a great example of someone who is able to use the art of story telling to engage others. When you think about it, many of the media people we follow in our everyday lives are essentially story tellers, from radio broadcasters to movie stars. This is another key art form that we need to make sure to utilize when trying to inspire others.

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From what I’ve learned

Throughout this course, we have touched on many topics regarding interpretation. We have learned about appreciating the values in our lives that give us extra experience in nature; embracing our invisible backpacks. We have been taught how to prepare for risks yet still succeed in maximizing potential rewards. Out of everything we have learned, however, the part that I realized was most important was being able to read your audience. We have been taught to recognize sensitive subjects and realize when a member of the group is uncomfortable. We have also been taught to approach those who do not know how to naturally engage in the group through various activities, both passive and active. With this in mind, we have been left to perceive new ideas and get creative.

One characteristic that I feel some of you might see from me is that I am quite charismatic and am very much a people person. When I was younger, I never considered myself a social butterfly, although throughout my school career (including this course) I have learned to overcome that fear. As a result, I am able to express my thoughts and passions to others, which for interpretation comes as a great asset. Fears and phobias are topics that we have briefly touched on in this course as a subtopic on risks and regulations when approaching a group. Having a fear of talking in large crowds because of judgement or denial is very common, one which I have gone through. In spite of this, I have a common understanding with others who are shy and timid, yet, want to engage. This makes it a personal responsibility of mine to make sure everyone is having fun and participating in some way. Here, I reference my camp leader, whom not only was super fun but knew how to handle such situations. She often helped me out when I was unsure about a group activity and held my hand when picking teams. Although she respected my alone time, she believed that (ironically) being a part of a group is a good way of bringing someone out of their shell, as long as it is not activity where the person is put on the spot (like answering questions or presentations). What I admired about her the most was that she made time for activities that everyone enjoyed. For example, she knew that I enjoy arts and crafts so, at down time she often had crayons and blank paper for those that wanted to draw pictures. She started out with so many activities and overtime, realized that the kids had their personal favorites which she heartedly took into account.

 (Picture of grade 7 me balancing on a rock at camp (and yes my favorite color is blue))

The point I would like to address is that being able to read your audience is an efficient skill to have when being an interpreter. Additionally, since you can not understand your group first hand (or even have a lot of time) it is effective to have many activities planned and make sure everyone in the group has a particular moment of the interpretation in which they can reflect on. With this, my belief is that nature interpretation is meant to set a positive memory and give people the opportunity to leave behind their fears in order to learn/ experience something spectacular.

In the future I hope to perfect my approach to different types of people and send out a positive vibe at the end of every nature experience. I want my group (in which I would be interpreting in the future) to feel comfortable with asking me questions and expressing their ideas towards me since I belief that an interpreter can receive knowledge from their followers as well as give out knowledge. Making people happy as well as living in full optimism is my motto and main goal in life and plan to share that with others in future endeavors of being an interpreter.

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Hi Hannah! 

Reading this actually took me by surprise, after meeting you I never would have thought that you were ever a shy person! You seem to have a very outgoing personality. I think its great that you want to use your experience on both sides of the introvert-extrovert spectrum to engage others and get them more involved!

Many people, such as myself, who are very quiet and shy can often be overshadowed and therefore become demotivated. I think it is very important that we as nature interpreters find ways to better involved people of all personality types, because there very well could be someone out there that is destined to change the world but doesn’t have the social skills to get out there and do stuff!

You mentioned that one thing that held you back from being a ‘social butterfly’ was something as simple as just a general fear. A lot of people think that if they put themselves out there, they will be judged as they might have been in the past. I think its very important that if we meet people who are like this, it is our responsibility to make them feel comfortable and spread more positive into their lives, regardless if it has anything to do with nature or science or what have you.

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Getting People Involved

From the beginning of the semester, when I first enrolled in the ENVS 3000 course, I must say my view on the interpretation of nature has drastically changed, as well as my view of the goals of the course.

In the beginning I must say I wasn’t particularly enthused with the prospect of having to conduct a tour with strangers, and write essentially an essay per week for 9 weeks. Personally, I am not an especially outgoing person, and having these extra burdens did not sit well with me on top of all the extra work from other courses I would have to do.

But alas, I remained in the course, and here I am at its conclusion. So what have I taken away from what I learned, and how have I developed as an interpreter?

Over the course of the semester, one theme kept becoming apparent to me over and over, and that was what is this course really preparing me for? The answer to that question did not really come from the course itself, but rather from attempting to explain to people what the course is all about when they ask “what the heck kind of class is that?”

Eventually I figured it out. Originally I would tell people that they are trying to teach us how to be a tour guide. But as the course progressed, I realized that this course is much more than that, IT IS A SCIENCE COMMUNICATION COURSE.

So why did this resonate with me so much?

I kept thinking about this theme of science communication, and why it is so important not only for me to pass this course, but for the world of science as a whole. Over the course of the semester, I wrote a few pieces that reflected this idea, generally touching on various issues in the world of science communication.

I thought a great deal about what kind of challenges we are experiencing currently in the world, and how so many scientific ideas such as *cough* climate change *cough* are so vastly thought of as myths, or for whatever reason an unimportant matter.

To me, the most important problem with science communication is bridging the gap between fact and fiction, and relating science to those with less educational background than perhaps we as science students.

As a child, I had a great affinity for creative writing, which I developed from my love of reading fiction novels, particularly very dense and wordy fantasy novels. Thus, I naturally find it much easier to write in a non-scientific, descriptive fashion. I believe this has translated very well for me with regards to science communication. Translating a scientific thought and putting it into a context more attractive to the average reader for me is quite easy. What the “Planet Earth” series does with ten thousand dollar cameras and unlimited resources, I can do with the pen and paper (extreme hyperbole I know).

Every year, it is becoming more and more apparent to me that there are very few people in a position of power or personal fame that use their platform to raise awareness. I remember being online during the time when Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar for ‘Best Actor’.

During his acceptance speech, Leo took the opportunity to make a shout out to the goings on in the world with regards to climate change and global warming, in an attempt to raise awareness. In response, many people commended him for his actions, but to my surprise, many also criticized him for it.

This was bewildering to me. I suppose some saw it as an attention grab or something to make him look like a good person. And it wasn’t only those on the right side of the political spectrum, who are the typical conservative climate change deniers, but it was also those on the left, who are generally accepting of the premise of climate change.

This infuriated me. Now I am not even some sort of Leo ‘stan’ that would follow him to the end of the earth or what not. But he is one of the most famous, if not the most famous actors in the world. What validation could he possibly need?

The point of that story is that I think there is a huge issue with the translation of scientific information regardless of any sort of personal life choices people make. The fact of the matter is people do not care about an issue unless it is directly affecting them in a very personal manner, and some people will go out of their way to reject and dismiss ideas they haven’t even began to think about or study for that matter.

I believe this course has opened my eyes to what my responsibility and calling as a nature interpreter. And that is to attempt to erase the muddled water that is the knowledge gap between scientists and the ‘average joe’ or anyone unfamiliar with scientific themes.

In the very near future, it has become very apparent that we are going to reach our carrying capacity on this earth, and bad things are inevitably going to occur. In order to slow the roll, we as nature interpreters need to figure out ways to get average people involved in our designs to save the world, and raise awareness without scaring people away.

My way of doing this could possibly be to write. What I bring the table is a skill set that could be very useful in igniting the passion for the natural world for those love to read, whether it be online or even in news articles. I really think if I can develop some sort of platform, I can really get people engaged so that we can all contribute more to saving our planet.

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Debriefing the Greenhouse Walk

On Saturday November 10th, our nature interpretation class had our Jane’s Walk presentations. Unfortunately I could only attend half of the presentations because I had an appointment to make in the afternoon, but I was fortunate enough to present my walk on the Dairy Bush with Jamie and Mitchell, and also attend the outdoor survival walk, the green house walk, and the trees on campus walk. Even though the weather wasn’t very cooperative, I had a very good time walking around and learning about hidden gems on the University of Guelph campus.  

For this weeks blog post, we had to choose a Jane’s Walk to debrief from the role of a participant. I am choosing to debrief the greenhouse walk because even though I have already been in the greenhouses that group 5 lead tours on, I learned new information that I did not know and that interested me greatly. I believe that there were six members in this group and my impression was that they had practiced the walk more than a few times because their transitions were smooth and they really knew their information. I was really impressed at how smoothly their walk went and how well they all worked together. I was also happy to attend their walk because it was very cold outside and greenhouses are an excellent refuge from the cold weather.

(https://twitter.com/uofgadmission/status/518428749067735040)

The leaders of this walk incorporated more than three “gifts” into their walk, but I’ve chosen to talk about the strongest gifts that they offered their participants. These gifts are 1. The gift of beauty, 2. The gift of personalizing the past, and 3. The gift of provocation.

1. The Gift of Beauty – Group 5 gave us the gift of beauty by showing us how beautiful vegetation growing in greenhouses can be. The best part of this gift that they gave us was that they didn’t even have to tell us it was beautiful. For example, when we were inside the tropical greenhouse in Bovey, they gave us free time to walk around and explore the green house and all the walk goers were amazed at the beauty of the plants growing and took pictures. The walk leaders commented on how we all thought it was beautiful and then told us that we should use the green house as an escape for when we’re feeling stressed with school/studying place.

(Taken on November 10th, 2018 in the tropical green house in Bovey by myself)

2. The Gift of Personalizing the Past – This group gave us the gift of personalizing the past through their stories of the naming of the Bovey building, about the Rutherford greenhouse, and through their explanation of the history of green houses. The stories that the group told were very entertaining and true – they remained true to the history of these terms and places and communicated the information to us effectively. I know I will remember what the purpose of a pinery greenhouse is.

(https://hiveminer.com/Tags/greenhouse%2Ctatton)

3. The Gift of Provocation – I received the gift of provocation in this Jane’s Walk. This group inspired me, and probably my other class mates, to go on and make green houses of our own. This group used many tools to explain the importance of greenhouses and it made me very interested in having one. Not only did they explain the importance of greenhouses, they also did a demo on how to make a mini green house and had instructions and seeds so you could get started.  

(The DIY Greenhouse pamphlets group 5 handed out at the end of their Jane’s Walk)

I do believe that even though the leaders of this walk gave the gift of provocation, they could have further developed it by telling the audience how they could get involved in greenhouses such as volunteering on campus at one of the many greenhouses. I believe that they also could have suggested other green houses in the area that we could visit and explained why greenhouses can be more environmentally friendly than conventional farming.

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Hi Marlee-Ann. 

I also thought the greenhouse group did a fantastic job using the gifts of nature interpretation to their advantage. Honestly this was my favourite Janes walk by far, and that’s not just because it was indoors and actually warm! They were very knowledgeable on the topics that were covered. They had a great balance between activity time and information provision as well, which was something I though was quite lacking amongst other groups plans.

In addition to the gifts you thought were instilled in the greenhouse walk, I thought they did a great job instilling the gift of joy! I thought that was particularly evident when they did the ‘do-it-yourself’ greenhouse activity. I thought that was a very fun and engaging activity even though I wasn’t directly involved in it. On top of providing useful and thorough information, they were able to entertain their audience.

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The Dairy Bush Walk

Last Saturday, the students of the ENVS 3000 all took each other on an interpretive “Jane’s Walk” to various hot spots in Guelph. One group that really stood out to me was the first group, who took us through a great nature walk through the Dairy Bush on the University of Guelph Campus.

The way these students decided to approach their walk was in more of an informative manner. They took us on a stroll that started a short walk from the dairy bush, stopping at a few key spots along the way, where they would engage the group by talking about various topics regarding the dairy bush. Some of these topics included the history of the dairy bush, why it exists, what its used for now in terms of recreation and research, and also what is the universities plans for it in the future.

One ‘gift’ of nature interpretation that this group was able to instill in their walk in my opinion that was the most obvious, was the gift of story. For much of the walk, perhaps at least the first half of it, we spent stopping at various points in and around the dairy bush. During these stops, the group gave us a briefing about essentially what the origins of the dairy bush were, and what it was used for at various time periods of its existence. This group I thought did a great job using the gift of story to engage their audience. They were able to use their interpretation skills to tell an engaging story about a seemingly simple and uninteresting plot of land.

Another gift I thought they were able to instill into their Jane’s walk was the gift of provocation. This group was able to really provoke their audience at the end of their walk. At the end of their walk, they discussed the university of Guelph’s future plans with part of the dairy bush, which are to essentially build on top of about half of the plot. Evidently, they were able to provoke their audience who they already knew were big into conservation science (they are in a ‘Nature Interpretation’ class after all).

Lastly, the dairy bush group was able to instill the gift of beauty into their walk. Their choice of location for the activity embodied this gift. The dairy bush may be a small plot of land, but it is a real and very well developed ecosystem, that exhibits beauty during any season.

One gift I thought the dairy bush group was missing perhaps was the gift of passion. The format of the walk was not entirely engaging, and I found we did a lot of standing around and being spoken to as if it was a lecture. Although the information was interesting I thought they could have been more creative with regards to involving their audience through activities.

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Aye Aye, Captain!

For this week’s blog post, I’m writing about something I actually just learned about. I was talking to my boyfriend about animals in the rain forest because we’re both really interested in animals, and he started throwing around the name “Aye Aye”. I had to stop our conversation and ask him what he was talking about and he introduced me to one of the most scary looking (but awesome) animals I have ever seen.

Here is a cartoon of the Aye Aye to ease you into my blog post, I don’t want to scare away anyone too soon by showing off this creature’s creepy feature.

(https://www.colourbox.com/vector/aye-aye-from-madagascar-in-cartoon-style-vector-32319481)

Currently, the Aye Aye is an endangered species primarily found in Madagascar. It is an endangered species partly because of the folk lore about it. As you can see from the cartoon Aye Aye, they have one very long and thin digit in the middle of their paws. This digit is essential to their survival because they tap on trees very quickly and rapidly to determine the location of insects in the trees. They then bite through the bark and eat the insects beneath the bark after they pull the insects out with their digit. Their teeth grow perpetually like most rodents, so gnawing on the bark is a way for the Aye Aye to maintain the size of their teeth. Aye Aye’s are lemurs, but to the natives of Madagascar, they were believed to be bringers of evil and were killed upon sight. The belief was that if they pointed at you, you’d be marked for death. Obviously, this is not the case. The Aye Aye, even though it is not very pretty to look at, is just a very specialized lemur with no ties to the grim reaper. Aye Aye’s are also endangered from the destruction of their home – the Madagascar rainforest. The Madagascar rainforest is being destroyed by humans (usually by slash and burn methods) to clear land for farming.  

You can really see how destructive the human race is just by looking at one endangered animal case. Some other examples of scary looking animals that are endangered based on their appearances are the Yangtze finless porpoise, the pig nosed turtle, and the large tooth sawfish.

The Madagascar forest is a high priority area for protection because it is not just composed of rain forest. It is also composed of tropical dry forests spiny forests, thorn forests, deserts, and shrub-lands. Its biodiversity is extraordinary. There are 50 species of small primates that are only found in Madagascar that need their home to be protected or else they will be lost.

Regarding conservation science, there is a greater understanding now that all animals are important and contribute to essential ecosystems, but that wasn’t always the case. Even though there is a greater understanding now, it is mostly in the scientific community and needs to be communicated to ‘lay people’. I suppose that is where nature interpreters come in. They share amazing and true facts about less cute animals like the Aye Aye, making the public understand that they are important too and need to be protected.

Here’s a picture of the real Aye Aye! It’s not as scary looking as I built it up to be. :) 

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Hi Marlee-Ann. I thought your blog post was very insightful, especially the part about the superstition the natives of Madagascar have regarding the Aye Aye. I think it’s incredibly wild that human thinking can develop to that kind of extreme to the point where people are literally going out of their way to kill a creature that doesn’t provide any nutritional benefit to them. In my opinion, behaviour such as this is just as immoral as poaching, or hunting for sport, especially considering that people are also simultaneously destroying their habitat. I also think however that it is hard to criticize these people for doing that. If it is something that is widely believed then it is essentially part of their culture. And if it is part of their culture, then who are we to criticize them for it? I think it is a very difficult thing to assess.

 Furthermore, I think it is also very difficult to place blame on the natives for the destruction of the lemurs habitat. Like many of the countries or regions in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar is still a developing country whose economy is far from world class. The people there aren’t clear cutting just for fun, but rather to make a living to support their families. Again, I obviously don’t agree with either the practice of killing animals for the sake of folk lore and destroying acres upon acres of forested land, but if we were to put ourselves in their shoes wouldn’t we do the same?

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The issue of information presentation

Something that is constantly on mind not only as a individual in this nature interpretation course, but as a student of environmental science, is how do we present scientific information to those who are not learned in the field. In a past blog, I explained the key differences between the idea of environmental science as a discipline, and environmental activism and how the two need each other to communicate information effectively and accurately.

Much of the information regarding the potential and current woes to the environment can be fairly easily absorbed by anyone who approaches that information with an open mind. For example, much of the litter we produce ends up in the ocean, and the result is us finding ‘beached whales’ whose bodies are absolutely polluted with garbage and plastic. This sort of information is easy for anyone to process.

Image: taken form dreamstime.com

But, as someone who is always reading scientific papers for the purpose of study, I often come across that can be somewhat misleading and contradictory to a mind that may not consider certain variables. Someone who is adept at using data and applying this data to a regression analysis may look at a data set containing some of the annual temperature changes year to year in the prairie provinces, and interpret this information to mean that global warming is providing some benefit to this region. They may also take information regarding the annual temperature change in a region close to the equator and see that data the temperature change is only a fraction of a degree and therefore insignificant.

As environmental scientists however, we examine this information in a different light, and from a different perspective. In the prairies, we note a drastic change in the region’s climate, which can spell disaster for the various ecosystems which are already being ripped by the tar sands. With equator regions we see a small annual temperature change in a region already almost too hot to be livable for not only humans but for other native organisms as well.

Those whose agendas are working opposite to that of people concerned with saving the environment can use perceived controversial data for their own purposes, such as those who work for oil companies, and politicians that are funded by them.

In the world of nature interpretation, there is a constant struggle to communicate information to the public effectively to engage our audience, and in a professional manner. It’s easy to get on a international platform and spew out biased facts, but in my opinion this makes us look just as silly as those who deny environmental issues. Building a reputation of fairness and civility to me is an incredibly important factor in attracting the world's attention.

My favourite speakers have always been the ones who present their information in a not only captivating manner, but one that is presented in a respectful and fair demeanor. So how do we adapt this strategy to the world of nature interpretation?

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Geology Rocks, Seriously!

Everything in this world is fluid, even the most stable, solid objects. Large geographic landforms such as mountains are often perceived as very permanent and solid. National Geographic has some information on the formation of mountain ranges. Basically, plate tectonics are responsible for the formation of mountains. When continental plates collide, the massive sheets of land buckle and fold, creating the rigid peaks and formation of mountains. Our mountain ranges of Earth were formed long ago, and since they were formed, they’ve been constantly eroding and wearing away.

These vast, seemingly rock solid (yup, really they are made of rocks) masses of Earth are rising, being weathered, and lowering at this very moment. The mountain peaks are carved and formed into valleys and various unique outcrops by the wind and dirt as it howls through the mountaintops.

Catastrophic events such as avalanches break away ice and rock from the sides of mountains, eroding a small portion of mountain in a small geological instant.

Even the storms occurring high in the mountain ranges are capable of weathering the rock. The rains, winds, and lightning strikes associated with mountain storms are capable of breaking and eroding away material from the tops of mountains.

This constant process is what I like to call fluidity of even the most solid things. Every piece of sand, every pebble, and every mountaintop is being eroded away into the finest molecules, just to eventually settle down and reform into rock again. Layer upon layer of fine particulate matter will build up, eventually being compressed, and forming into what we know as sedimentary rocks.

Geologic processes such as these are so vast, and happen upon such a large time scale that perhaps we forget that they happen at all. It is the knowledge of these events, and these constant ever-changing processes that makes the field of geology so interesting.

Some people find rocks plain and boring, but not I. I think rocks are among the most fascinating things this planet has to offer. They are constantly changing, reforming, and amazing me. If you can appreciate the beauty in even the most ordinary rock, you will never find yourself bored on this planet.

If you get a chance, try taking a course on rocks, or even just going out and picking up some different ones. See if you can spot some of the tiny mineral specks within that rock, and appreciate how many different things are going on in that one pebble.

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Hi Courtney. I also think that rocks are not plain and boring, but more on the lines of awesome! In science courses, especially ones involving the study of life, many times the abiotic aspects of nature often become overlooked as less crucial. Yet, these large rock formations are the homes of thousand of species. Its the ground beneath our feet that was the deciding factor of all the plant, animal, and fungi species and how they evolved, not the other way around!

I think it is a very cool and unique way to think about the natural world in this manner. The most prevalent example I can think of is the Ibex. The Ibex is a species of goat that resides in the Alps. The Ibex is those crazy goat species that you see climbing on seemingly unrealistic cliffs in ‘Planet Earth’ and other such docu series. To me it seems like such an insane idea that an animal as big as the Ibex can live in such an environment. However, through the mechanics of adaptation and evolution, somehow the ibex was able to use the terrain to its advantage, which is to hide from its predators than can’t reach it there. This seemingly useless, massive piece of rock is the reason why the ibex even exists as a species.

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The Jack Pine and Forest Fires

The Boreal forest is a lush, expansive forest larger beyond any other forest in the world, dominated by coniferous life forms and all the wonderful animals species that live within it. Stretching from Canada’s eastern maritime provinces, all the way across Ontario, Quebec, and the prairies to the Rocky Mountains and up to Alaska, it is the largest patch of trees on the planet. And while it may not have the same level of species richness as the Amazon rainforest, it is home to some of the most amazing lifeforms on the planet.

Over the last few years, many forests across North America (especially including Ontario) have been experiencing what seems like a very large spike in the number of forest fires, or at least an increase in their frequency and intensity in regions closed to developed lands. Every couple of weeks or so I turn on the television, and the news is reporting yet another devastating forest fire. Tales of hundreds of people becoming misplaced, homes being destroyed, infrastructure being damaged, and perceived records being broken for number of fires in that region being shattered or something of that nature.

I think the least we can say regarding this matter is it is an issue that is coming to the forefront in terms of themes being introduced to the mainstream media’s agenda. One question I am constantly asking myself when I see something regarding this topic is what am I to make of it? Firstly, I think it is obvious that this is one of the earliest proofs of what global warming is doing to our earth. In some places, the summers are getting more dry and fires are becoming more prevalent, in the same way some coastal areas are becoming more prone to extreme weather events.

But one thing sticks in my mind most of all. In the middle of all this mess, there exists a species of coniferous tree called the jack pine. The jack pine is what we call a pyrophile, which means it harbours a special kind of cone that only opens when exposed to extreme heat, which under normal circumstances comes in the form of a forest fire. Essentially, the jack pine needs forest fires in order to breed and eliminate competition from other tree species so its saplings can take root.

To me this all seems like a very odd contradiction to the way we as humans think about natural disasters such as forest fires. Forest fires are a very natural and for many species essential part of the Boreal forest, but as these fires continue to rage on more frequently and intensely, the become a very big risk to human life. But even to a species that needs forest fires, there is a point where the line is drawn. At a certain point, even the jack pine doesn’t benefit from the increased forest fire activity, because there needs to be a fair amount of downtime for their saplings to take hold which they can’t do if they are constantly being burned down.

[joenvs3000-2018-blog]

Music and Nature

I’m one of those people who will usually have headphones in wherever they go. I’m listening to music as I write this now! I like looking through albums on my phone and recalling what I was doing and how I felt when I was listening to them. What usually happens is I listen to an album on repeat for about a week or two before I move onto a new one. This way, albums and songs work as sort of time capsules for me. 

In this week’s seminar, we worked with James Gordon. The result was a song about the beauty of nature, which would make a great camping song! Our assignment for the beginning of the exercise was to think about a song that makes us think of a location. Some ideas were “The Black Fly Song” by Wade Hemsworth, a song that I’ve only heard once but immediately transported me into June in the peak of black fly season. Scrolling through my music, I realized a lot of songs reminded me of either a general mood I was in when I listened, or a certain place. For example, I was driving around Hobart, Tasmania for a week with my friend Mei in April, and we had rented a car and played “Over Everything” by Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett every single day. I hadn’t reminisced on this trip in months, and playing the song brought back a lot of great feelings. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KNsBCf34fQ ; here’s the link if you want to give it a listen!). I recalled our hikes on Mount Wellington, the platypus and albino wallaby we spotted, and looking out on the vast southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica. Through memories like this, nature is in music.

    But there is music in nature as well. In Japan, there is a form of meditation called ‘Forest Bathing’. There’s a great book on it, “Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness” by Dr. Qing Li. The idea is to immerse yourself into a single spot. This isn’t about hiking, you just get comfortable in a spot in the forest and sit there for 20 minutes or so. It takes a long time to truly absorb everything in the forest; the lighting, the plants, animals, bugs, sounds, smells. I borrowed this book from my cousin who does research for the National University of Singapore on Neurolandscaping and decided to try it out myself. There were lots of things I noticed both in myself and my surroundings, but I was surprised by some of the things I noticed that I wouldn’t notice on a hike. The wind through trees, the trickle of water through the lignin of the canopy to the forest floor, the beetles crawling through the forest litter. It was like a meditation soundtrack! If meditation and forests are two things you enjoy, I would definitely recommend trying forest bathing. I took a picture of simplified instructions the book provides, if you aren’t able to read it.

All in all, you can find nature in music in ways you wouldn’t expect, but furthermore, music is everywhere in nature! I’m curious if others listen to music like I do, using it as a time capsule that has a memory attached to it. Also, what’s your favourite hiking/camping/roadtripping song?

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Julia

As Nature interpreters, we are constantly raved with this one overlying theme when it comes to expanding our discipline and getting others involved, and that theme is how do we get others interested? I think a lot of the traditional ways of getting people involved and interested involves getting in peoples faces and promoting events and opportunities that they “don’t want to miss out on”. And while all these methods are excellent I think we as nature interpreters have only tapped the surface when it comes to exploiting media as a resource to get others more involved.

You mentioned how certain songs bring you back to a time where you were out enjoying nature with your friend. Now, for the rest of your life whenever those songs come on it will remind you of that natural landscape you experienced, and can potentially reestablish your connection with nature if it were ever lost some how. As nature interpreters, if we can come together and share ideas of how to establish similar connections for others who may not have that same interest, we can maybe create that connection for that person that they will have for the rest of their lives. Encouraging and spreading the knowledge of the importance of music and nature could very well be the spark that helps multitudes of people create a special connection with nature.

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Music and Nature

Where is music in nature? What is nature in music?

If you ever chance a stroll down a wooded area, or any setting seemingly uninhabited or absent of human presence, you can witness natures form of music.

If music is defined by a conglomerate of different instruments coming together to produce one singular track, then we can very much state that nature in itself has its own distinct musical genre, characterized by its own specific entities in a particular natural setting.

If nature is in itself its own genre of music, then it must have its own selection and variety of different artists and songs. Thus, we can say that each and every ecosystem may be its own artist, characterized by the different elements of each ecosystem, from the community to the individual level. Each sound producing element in an ecosystem may be its own instrument, biotic or abiotic, and they all come together to produce an extravagant symphony unparalleled to one we ourselves may produce in a studio.

Now this may all seem like nonsense, but it could very well be something we must consider in the world of nature interpretation. In the real world, people tend to be more partial to one genre/style or another. As listeners, we can listen to a song a hundred million times and on that one hundred million and first time we listen to it, we discover a new instrument that we may have never even noticed before.

We can apply that same very principle to the world of nature interpretation. Our job as nature interpreters in part is to open our audiences minds to things they may have never thought of or considered in the past, and aid them in processing that information in a way that they may be able to connect to and understand. If we think of nature as music, we can break it up into all its component parts and attempt to explain how all these instruments -- or individuals in an ecosystem -- come together to form that song, or ecosystem.

Each and every ecosystem has its own individuals both biotic and abiotic that come together to form a unique ecosystem that we as nature interpreters must learn to adapt to our audience. If we can break it up into its own empirical parts, maybe we as interpreters can better explain how it comes together for those who may not realize its complexity. For example, for someone like me that’s never been to the American Midwest, I may look at that dry, desert landscape and not realize its true complexity. An interpreter who knows the landscape however, may examine it and open my eyes to the fact that it’s that very dryness of that landscape that shapes the life all around it.

If we treat nature like how we listen to music, things someone may have never realize existed can produce that interest and very spark that gets them more involved in that natural world around them.

[kfenvss3000-2018-blog]

Paying Attention to the Details

Art has always been something close to my heart. My great grandfather was a painter and so is my aunt so I guess you could say it runs in my family. I personally prefer to sketch. I am brining this up because our readings talk about the 19th century poet John Ruskin, and his idea that people can fully possess nature’s beauty through drawing or writing about it. He believed that this would allow people to slow down so that they could understand and process all the fine details of nature. This really resonated with me because quite frankly, it is true. Sketching is a time consuming creative process that allows you to really think about what you are drawing in new ways. 

I don’t typically share my sketches because the saying that ‘you are our own worst critic’ is definitely true. However, I think that sketching is beneficial to everyone so I will use them help illustrate my point.

There is a little bit of a story behind this hawk sketch. There was a period of time in my life when I was dealing with anxiety and panic attacks. During this time there was this hawk that always hung out at my barn and to me it represented freedom and strength so I decided to draw it. I am sharing this story to illustrate the point that art allows people to make personal connections to a place or animal. Hawks are now one of my favourite animals because I have this personal connection to them. 

This lion sketch is a favourite to many people. I included it to show that not every sketch has to have a previous personal connection like the hawk did, it can be created as you are drawing. I started drawing this lion simply because I felt like it. However, as I was sketching I began to make up a story in my mind about how he is this young male looking for his own pride with a coalition of other males. This shows how art really makes people slow down and appreciate what you are drawing and gives you time to make up stories and create a connection to nature through your imagination. 

I am not going to talk about the other 3 sketches in this post because we would be here all day. I am including them because I would actually love to hear your interpretations on them (if anything catches your attention), I find it really interesting how people take images in different ways. If you did want to hear why I drew one of them I would be happy to share.

The point I am trying to get at is that art is an extremely useful form of nature interpretation. I know from experience that it forces you to pay attention to the details that you may have missed by just giving something one quick look. It also allows you to create a personal connection through the use of your imagination which is a powerful thing. 

For those of you who have never tried it, I highly recommend picking an animal or place and trying to sketch it. I find music helps to get you thinking creatively about what you are doing. It can be frustrating, I am a bit of a perfectionist so half of the time I walk away feeling frustrated but find it really helps you to connect with what you are drawing and not miss any of the details. 

I would love to hear how you guys feel about implementing art into nature interpretation programs. I personally like sketching because I am a very visual thinker so breaking down the fine details of a face or even the eyes of an animal is very helpful. I know some people prefer physically dancing or listening to music as a way of expressing themselves so there are many different ways that this kind of interpretation can be done. 

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Kirsten.

I thought you had a very eye opening post, even for me who is someone thats never had any artistic inclination of any sort. When I had read this blog prompt, the connection I made was one of using art for the purposes of interpreting art for others, rather than myself. I thought if we can use art to engage others in what we are talking about, there are limitless possibilities to what we can accomplish in terms of who we can get involved.

Your post opened my eyes to a whole new possibility in that not only can we create art for others to get them engaged in nature, but we can also challenge and inspire others to use art to create their own depictions of nature. I think in this day and age, many people (including myself) look to find things that can distract them from the everyday stresses and anxieties that we come across. 

You mentioned in your blog how you were able to use the creation of art to express certain feelings you may have been having at that specific time. I think if more people did the same, this would create an even more meaningful connection to nature that would certainly resonate with people. Although I do not have any artistic talent, I can relate to you in that I often find myself watching movies that in the past have had some sort of meaningful connection in my life as a sort of outlet for stress.

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Nature and Art

As a student of science, I can look at a nature setting and recognize that there is much more to it than it suggests. Someone who is not versed in the ways of a natural landscape however may perceive it only from that exact angle that he or she is looking at it. Beyond its superficial appearances -- a cluster of coniferous trees decorating a rounded snowy mountainside, a single cactus in the middle of the Sahara desert, a group of dolphins exploding out of a deep blue ocean -- and think nothing more of it beyond that scope.

But what do I see?

Because of my scientific training, I see much more than that. Sure i recognize its beauty in similar ways to the average passerby, but to me that photogenic landscape is much more than that.

When I look at a natural landscape, I see its complex levels of organization. I see it for what it really is: an ecosystem. I see down to its very core, its communities, its populations its individuals, and how they all come together to make up this unimaginably complex, and yet so fragile system. The average person doesn’t look at these landscapes and see that if one little seemingly insignificant species was removed, that every population would be impacted in one way or another.

So why is art important in nature? Why can an artist explain natures complexities with some sort of art form so much better than I can with a 2000 page paper?

Photo taken from https://www.colourbox.com/vector/illustration-of-global-warming-vector-2363360

For one simple reason: a picture is worth a thousand words. The fact of the matter is, is that people aren’t generally engaged by the blabbering us scientists generally enthuse each other with. They want to see something. It’s the same reason why these days most people would much rather go to the movie theater and watch a blockbuster film than stay at home and have a quiet night next to their books.

Artists that can depict these concepts in ways us scientists could never dream of. They can create so much more emotion with one simple idea than I could with 10000 words. Interpreting nature through way of art is a crucial factor to getting people engaged.

For example, my favourite movie is The Revenant. I’ve seen this movie about a thousand times (hyperbole), and yet each and every time I watch the movie I get the chills from the incredibly ambitious shots they depict throughout the film. The director Alejandro González Iñárritu makes use of music, gorgeous landscapes, and emotional characters to leave a lasting impact on the viewer. This gift of beauty that art can depict is so much more impactful than words because they tell a story in a much more relatable way. Interpreting nature is all about appealing to your audience in a way that thoroughly engages them, and in a way that keeps them thinking about what you showed them long after the exercise is complete.

[lpenvs3000-2018]

Music junkies, hello!

This time I am going to try something new, and it may be a stretch!  On another day, I would write about my photography, my thoughts and feelings about using a forest as a form of healing, or the upcoming travel opportunities that I am looking forward to. Time to challenge myself in looking at something that may not totally link to nature interpretation! I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this, music junkies of ENVS*3000.

Looking at another classmate’s post about music, and another about the ‘age of information’ in social media, I thought to myself, why does nature have to be about disconnection? Don’t get me wrong, I am one of those people who go out into nature to relieve myself of the external pressures that we may face: school, work, deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. Often, I find myself leaving my phone and home and taking my camera with me. However, as we are increasingly exposed to images, news, content, tips and tricks, art and music… what is stopping us from improving our connection with nature with these new tools? 

Bon Iver - Holocene. This song was created for the album, ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. Justin Vernon wrote this entire album living alone in his father’s remote hunting cabin in Wisconsin, living on the land. He hoped to recreate his music in a way that connected more with love, mediocrity and nature. You can hear the passion in his voice as he sings ‘At once I knew, I was not magnificent’. 

One way that I connect music to nature is by linking experiences with certain songs or albums. ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ is an album that brings me back to my trip to Iceland. As we drove across the countryside on long winding roads, between tall mountains and glistening waterfalls, I listened to this album. Now, when I hear the soft guitar and the strange lyrical tunes, I can still feel the wonder I was experiencing in a new country, a country where it seemed as though isolation was serenity for most people. Listening to music in nature can break down those memory blocks in your mind and create lasting experiences, and open your mind to new feelings in places you have never been before.

Rusted Root - Send Me On My Way. Yes, this is the song from Ice Age! But, it is also a great companion to being outside, as it creates the feeling of adventure, learning and excitement.

Send Me On My Way is my go-to song for when I am going on an adventure! The penny-whistle tunes and happy beat gives me the joy and excitement to start something new. Songs like this are motivation: they say ‘Hey, you have been sitting for too long, how about going outside and experiencing something new?’. Listening to upbeat tunes can make an experience in nature feel less like a meditation (which may not be everyone’s thing) and more like a fun, amiable outing. How can you not go on a journey when listening to a song like this? Also check out this song by Eddie Vedder, who created the song to ‘Into the Wild’, a movie about a student giving up all that he has to go live in the wilderness (pretty accurate for this course, I must say).

Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains. A modern indie-folk group that bases their music off of the world around them, creating songs that bring about curiosity, observation and appreciation for little things.

There are lyrics out there that are so beautifully written about nature, songs that parallel sounds of nature in their instrumentation and songs that even feature sounds directly taken from forests, streams, and animals. There are countless ways to weave nature into art and music. When you start to realize that the sounds in your music are representative of the sounds in nature (ex. fleeting folk guitar representative of trickling water in a riverbed), you will start noticing the smaller details in nature. Your sense of sight becomes paired with your sense of hearing, and you create a connection to something that once wasn’t there before.

I am curious to see what people think about this. Does music inhibit, or improve natural connection? What would you listen to in nature to make your connection greater? How does music make you feel about the world around us? 

P.S. Shoot me some cool music, and I will be your best friend.

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Lili. I’d like to start off by saying how awesome I think it is that you were able to make this connection between nature interpretation and the media, especially music. I think these special connections you have to these songs you decided to share with us reflect a very important theme in the world of nature interpretation, which is the theme of inspiration. I think throughout our studies we tend to get lost in our books and busy lives that we forget how important the themes of motivation and inspiration are for the discipline.

In a country with such a rich array of media culture, media such as music and movies have become a very significant part of our everyday lives, usually even in spite of our love for the outdoors. One of the main concerns of nature interpretation is finding ways to motivate and intrigue people who haven’t had the opportunities we have to experience nature in its beauty. I think mainstream media is a wonderful tool rather than a hindrance to nature interpretation, and we just have to learn to develop the tools and methods in light of sharing the natural world with others.

For me, when I think of using media as a tool to inspire others, I am reminded of one of my favourite movies, The Revenant. When Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar for  his performance in that movie, he used his platform to inspire others to make change, as he had previously throughout his career. Many people criticized him for this, saying he should have just stayed in his lane and not talk about something in which he has really no scope of. But I think he did a masterful job in creating awareness, and now often times when I am reminded of that movie, my mind makes a connection to nature and the awareness I could potentially create for each other.

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Environmental Science vs. Environmental Activism

Do we need environmental activism?

This a question I ponder about very often while going about my studies during the school year. Do we need it? Is it necessary for the furtherment of our discipline? How much is too much? These are just a few questions I think an environmental scientist must ponder when discerning between what’s real and what’s not real in the world of environmental science.

What’s the main difference between environmental activism and environmental science? To me, the difference lies between the noticeable scientific merit we observe between the two groups. An environmental science graduate or student spends a significant amount of time learning the procedures of data interpretation and the grounds on which scientific theories are developed. They make a huge commitment and sacrifice of both time and money towards their studies which they could theoretically be saving on pursuing a career that would require them to sacrifice much less. This commitment instills a true appreciation for both the natural world and the procedures it requires to study it.

That very appreciation is not as apparent in the world of environmental activism. Those who choose to participate in environmental activism do not go through the grueling years of scientific study. They do not know how to discern between reliable and unreliable research and data. They cannot appreciate the ins and outs of real science. In the past, environmental activism has given the study of environmental science a bad “wrap” which have given those who do not know the difference between activism and science a bad connotation to associate the discipline with. We’ve all heard the term “tree huggers” before, a term with a rather negative and radical connotation that has given us environmental science students headaches when trying to explain to others what kind of career we are actually pursuing.

Despite this, I really do think we need environmental activism. The truth is, without these so called tree huggers, we might not have any sort of societal awareness towards our study. Over the course of my studies here at the University of Guelph, it has become very apparent to me that governments do not adopt any environmental programs if there is no societal pressure to do so.

We are running out of time.

From the perspective of an environmental science student, it is very apparent to me that the rate of us deteriorating the earth is far out reaching the rate of progress towards preventing it. Even if we put a highly developed and educated country such as Canada under the microscope, the awareness isn’t even close to where it needs to be, and when we consider that the countries expanding the most in terms of population are generally far less educated than our own, our prospects of saving the earth don’t looks so good.

So my conclusion is we need these radicals. We need people to take a stand and pressure governments into making changes, because at the rate we are going there may be only be time for a few more generations of humans on this earth.

[mjlenvs3000-2018]

Past, Present and Future

“There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails aknowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.” (Edward Hyams, Chapter 7, The Gifts of Interpretation).

As I first was reading this quote to unpack it, I was very confused at what it was saying. The quote jumps around a lot about past and present and the idea of integrity, but In truth this quote was in deed very puzzling.

It is naïve to believe that the past is completely gone. You must recognize and have value to things that have happened to you in order to grow and move on. This is because if you did not than you would have a blank slate and you would have to start over with no lessons learned.

This quote states integrity frequently and I believe they mean that you must have integrity, good moral compass, and it is important to acknowledge where you have been to shape where you will go. If you never acknowledge the negative parts of your pass, and own up to them, you can only have so much integrity. Because essentially having good integrity is the ability to be honest when you have made mistakes and learn from them rather than pretend they have never happened.

To think that way is to think that the world does not exist without your actions. Most people only think about what is going on in front of them and that is not the reality.

Another meaning that could be perceived from the second part of the quote may be that you need to seize the moment because in certain situations you may miss your chance on things that are happening in your present.

Learn from the past but also do not dwell on it. You need to learn from it to move forward but if you dwell on it you will never be fully present.  

Personally, in my life I know that I dwell on the past a lot. I am very sensitive to things that have happened in my life and sometimes I let it control my feeling in the present. I need to apply this quote to my life and seize the moment and learn from my past to help me in the future.

An addition to this quote should discuss how sometimes people let their future control their present as well. This is another thing that I think people do very frequently without really thinking what they are doing. My friends and family will always tell me I am overthinking things that have not even happened yet, so I am stressing about things that are in my future.

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Marie, great post. I decided to respond to your post because I took a similar approach to analyzing this quote to you, which was looking at it from a more contextual standpoint rather than a literal one.

Like you I didn’t see this quote as referring to ancient things literally, but rather our internal and inherent beliefs and attitudes as human beings. We may have had different thoughts about the quote itself, but I think its awesome that you considered the quote from a contextual standpoint! I thought it was interesting that you related the quotes points about ancient things to our own experiences in our own pasts in our own lives. When I read that part, I related it more so to our past as a species rather than our own personal past. However, our analyses were still similar in that we both admitted personal growth in terms of the past must be acknowledged to grow as human beings.

For the second part of the quote, I thought it was interesting that you related it again to learning from our own pasts and recognizing we must use the past for personal growth. I made a similar connection to you, but again using the past as a species to learn and apply these lessons so that we may better ourselves as a species. I recognized the train station as us as humans stating that just because the train is coming through now, doesn’t mean we haven’t been in these situations (the train) before and haven’t the precedence to make a good decision.

[nmenvs3000-2018-blog]

The Merit Of Ancient Things

Firstly, i’d like to admit to you all that I found this quote very wordy and confusing the first couple times I read it, which is considerable because I have an extensive background reading very dense and wordy novels in my past. However, after reading it a few times, and reflecting at the quote a bit by bit, the rough theme of the quote started to become apparent to me

The first part of the quote, the writer compares the merit of ancient things to the merit of integrity, stating that the merit of ancient things is insignificant in itself, but that there is merit in integrity, and that in maintaining this integrity we must consider ancient things. This confused me greatly, and I had to admittedly read it about a billion times over. Eventually, I stopped taking the quote literally, and began to look at it at a more contextual glance. For I do not believe that the writer is referring to ancient structures and tales, but rather to the ancient merits of natural law.

I believe inherently, each and every culture has the same general sense of natural law. Natural law is best expressed in the absence of ambition and the presence of a sense of peace. In peace, we can appreciate the nature of “ancient things” both literally and contextually. If I go for a walk through the forest in the middle of exam season, the forest isn’t really there to me. I cannot acknowledge the beautiful scenery, smells, and feeling that come along with it because I am so concerned with the negatives of my life. When we are not at peace with ourselves, our sense of natural law goes out the window and all that matter is getting out of the situation were in. Urban developers cannot understand nor appreciate the land they are building over because they are concerned about earning their next paycheck for their company. Politicians ignore the obvious signs of global warming because they are paid by oil companies. People simply do not pertain to their inherent sense of natural law when they are oppressed by the confines of modern life in today society.

The next part of the quote continues this theme of natural law. It uses the analogy of the train and the train station to represent natural law. In this case, the train station is our inherent sense of natural law, and the train is the obstacles that we come into contact with in our day to day lives. The quote states that the train station does not only exist when the train goes through it. Our daily lives create a false cloud of ignorance over our heads and keep us from regarding to things that should be considerably more important in our lives. Things such as compassion, respect, caring, intuitiveness. Instead our mindsets are more along the lines of ‘why should I care about these things when there are much more pressing matters to attend to in my own life?’