Take a Walk on the Wild Side - Green Gazette

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At his worst (though who can blame him), Petersen allows the indignation he feels on behalf of the land to goad him into eloquent tirades — warning that, “if we don’t get our heads out of our investment portfolios and back into the real world soon, ecological collapse, global war, famine, disease, and anarchy inevitably will reign.”Whew.

Petersen’s story is both brutally honest and startlingly lovely. Though you may not agree that “we are well along the doomsday path to collective cultural insanity,” or subscribe to his belief that “if you depend on wild nature for your physical and mental well-being … then you naturally become a homespun animist,” you can’t help feeling energized and enriched by his words. Here is a writer with the knowledge, skill and courage to propose a different way of seeing and interacting with the natural world. Petersen writes: “It strikes me that the straightest path to a life of satisfying simplicity … is marked by intelligent balance; finding a complementary and comfortable mean between the material and the spiritual, between nature and culture, between personal and social, with plenty of time left after each day’s work in which to socialize, play, meditate, make music and love, and, of course, to enjoy a nice walk.” Now who can argue with that?

David Petersen is the former Western editor for Mother Earth News. Read his articles at www.MotherEarthNews.com. To order his book, see Mother Earth Shopping.

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