Nature Essay

By:
Chris Caldwell


"Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or mourning place." This quote is from "Nature," an essay that was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature is a story about nature and how it surrounds us and effects us. In English class one day, I got to experience the same sensation that Emerson tries to describe. On Tuesday we left the classroom during English class and went into the woods next to the school. We were told to be quiet and reflect on the nature around us. Although not many people were quiet, I tried very hard to see nature as if Emerson and Thoreau saw it. It was amazing to see what a miracle nature is. I saw the ground as being wet and leaf covered instead of just mud. The trees where nature's own sunscreen, a green wall of protection, with the treetops making a kind of barrier above us. The barrier shielded us from the heat and I noticed that the temperature was at least ten degrees cooler inside the forest fortress. Nature is the one thing that man is always surrounded by, and is the easiest way to come to peace. But as time goes on, nature is starting to be destroied and we are loosing less and less. Emerson and Thoreau would be ashamed of how the world is right now. With so much nature destroyed, it is almost impossible to go into the woods as Thoreau did in his story Walden. " I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach..." I only wish that I could take a trip to the woods as Thoreau did. It seems that it would let me be in a place of peace. It sounds Incredible.
Although it was only a short trip,when I went into the forest, I felt at peace. As I was walking I thought to myself, "We rely on nature to breathe, and yet we still tear down what took so long to grow, without nature what will we rely on? Without nature we cannot rely on ourselves!" One quote from Emerson's story Self-Reliance helps describe what I was thinking, " Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." I believe that Emerson is telling us to use nature to our advantage. We all use nature to our advantage, but also destroy it.
Nature is very important, and that we need nature for survival. Emerson and Thoreau described this to us and helps us to understand that we need to respect and learn from nature. If we keep destroying nature, we will have nothing to go to and center ourselves and relfect. We need nature more than we know.