Pyle and Ackerman

Robert Michael Pyle: "And the Coyotes Will Lift a Leg"

ooowee well talk about major philosophy reading! I thought that Pyle raised a lot of questions that I often think about. Without humans would the nature world be better off? Well there's no real way of actually answering this because there has been human life on Earth for quite a while AND we if humans were taken off the planet then there would be no way of knowing if the nature world was doing better without us. sooo I guess that is one of those questions that can't be answered. duh. But it's something fun to think about. And I often wonder that when we as people try to help "save" the nature world by better managing it if we are just doing even more harm than help. The nature world will more or less figure it's issues out. That's one aspect that people can't do, we can't figure our issues out.

I liked the way Pyle finish his article by stating all the neat aspects that the nature world and it's creatures possess. "In a sense, all life in the ravaged land is a bunch of weeds-- survivors, coping and adapting under adversity." Pyle presented a lot of points that create for active thinking and I defiantly need to go back and break down his ideas.

Diane Ackerman: "Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall"

This article made me really excited for when all the leaves fully change their color. I can't wait for the red leaves, they are the best, especially the strawberry blonde leaves. Before living in Indiana, fall wasn't my favorite season just because there aren't really trees that change color in New Mexico and it just kinda gets dusty and dry. But not that I live in Indiana I think that fall is the best season! I love the colors, food, cool weather, hats, light jackets, sweat shirts, pumpkins, crunching leaves!

Both of the articles help me deal more with the fact that death is a natural thing that must be done. I think in our culture in this day of age that death is thought of something that can be postponed with the help of technology and medicine. But since when should death ever be something that is postponed, it needs to happen. Ackerman says, "Colored like living things, they signal death and disintegration. In time, they will become fragile and, like the body, return to dust. They are as we hope our own fate will be when we die: Not to vanish, just to sublime from one beautiful state into another." Transferring from one beautiful state to another is nature's destiny for all of us.