In Abbey’s Wilderness essay, he discussed the false myth of the wilderness being separated from civilization, noting that wildness can be found in places considered urban if one looks for them. While Abbey sometimes has bigoted views in his work, this idea addresses the issue of this separation. This dichotomy prevents people who are non-white or poor or uneducated from having access to these spaces, making them not realize that nature is all around them. I noted that his take on finding wilderness can occur through “looking into societies of the past and learning how to balance out industrialization/development and idealistic pastoralism”. Finding a balance for a solution and not going to either extreme allows the prevention of the problems found in inherently choosing the extreme options on either side without finding any compromise. Nature writing can help to challenge this binary and show that the natural and human world can really be considered one and the same when one looks close enough. Bergman’s essay, Searching for the Sacred in a Time of Crisis, resonated with me, especially with her discussion of reasons for leaving organized religion in the first place. My queerness and my religion are tied to each other as my queerness is one of the reasons I felt more comfortable in my current practice. It also allows one to write about taking their own stance while still being sympathetic to those of others even if you don’t agree with them. While bashing greedy CEOS who don’t’ wish to enact the change necessary is fun, it is harder to do so with those that are contributing to the problem via ignorance and just trying to survive. This style of nature writing allows us to take an empathic step towards the source of the bashing as a way to gather allies and support. How to Queer Ecology allows us to step out of the presumed straight, affluent, white male perspective to show us that writing about nature should include writing about all nature, all of its complexities and flaws. It should show the rejection of the binaries set up, whether they’re about sexuality, gender/sex, or the separation of humans and nature. It allows people to question who belongs in a natural space and how they can be presented in it to try to make our world just a bit more inclusive. Nature writing has allowed me to gain perspectives on what it can be. It shows what different mediums can present in their format and choices. It shows that ethics and themes within in these types of storytelling can be varied and contradictory.
I have engaged in the ways that memories can shape our perceptions of the natural world. I have engaged in using creative works to connect to higher powers and write from a perspective that I usually keep hidden. I have used stories to convey ideas that I have to deal with regularly within my life and present them in a fictional setting. I have tried to use mythology to connect our views of nature from the past to the present because myths are not always just about the past. I have learned that my writing can become very fluid and stream of consciousness-like without my knowing of it. Many people pointed out to me that my work was able to connect many different ideas together. Most of my life focuses on making connections between different ideas/things and figuring out new concepts in my head that I can utilize in my writing. I am especially proud of the poem that I had written. I have written poetry before, but I have never felt as invested in those pieces as I did this one. The idea came from a tarot card reading that inspired me to connect to the world via a creative outlet. When I was given the chance to in class, I decided to take advantage of it, creating a religious hymn to the pagan gods of the past. I had tried out concepts I hadn’t done before such as an invocation of the muse which is a classic technique that writers in the past have used. I hope to continue to utilize environmental themes in my works of fiction going forward as those are the ones I regularly work on and update.
