The Natural World

After reading The Natural Art, I started thinking about things and places I find enjoyable. I love the outdoors and seeing new places, and more often than not I’ve thought about what I would do if somehow I could mold my own little world together and create a place to live that has all the attributes I consider desirable for living. In my mind, my perfect world would have rolling green hills interspersed with groves of trees, my comfy house would be perched on a nice hummock that affords a view of the rural surroundings. Flowing through my little domain would be a quaint little stream, and maybe I’d have a pond or a lake for good measure. So in other words, it would look something like the Shire from Lord of the Rings.
With this in my head, I was surprised to see how well this all melded with what was discussed in the article. Apparently I’m just like any other human and susceptible to falling to my unconscious likes and dislikes. I can’t speak for the accuracy of the views presented in the reading, as I’m not a scientist who can say if it is right or wrong. Much of it seemed like speculation, though I feel it is certainly very plausible speculation. The notion that human’s behavior is shaped by our early past and loaded into our very genes does not at all seem unlikely to me. Just off the top of my head I can think of a few examples of other animals that still exhibit behavior that harkens back to a time when they needed it to survive. Housecats still perch on tall things to afford a view of their surroundings, and gerbils burrow down out of sight when they go to sleep. Why should humans not have inherent influences at work in our minds when we pick places to call home? Maybe it is no wonder that what people consider nice homes often share qualities such as big yards, pools, large trees and views. This falls right in line with the article’s concept that we pick places resembling our early habitat, places that are optimized for our safety, and ultimately, our survival. I suppose I was literally doing what felt right when daydreaming about my perfect place to live.