by Wayne Ferrier

God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, “Ah!”

–Joseph Campbell

Most people, who reside in the Northeastern United States, don’t know that there are remains of old growth forests scattered here and there among them. And most don’t care. The human species is not hard-wired to appreciate these things. The people who do appreciate them have a difficult time digesting this, but it’s true. Most people’s world view is a social reality imprinted and reinforced by the way other human beings look at the world. Human beings are social animals and few could survive alone in the wilderness; they’d starve or succumb to the elements. However, most would lose their sanity long before the unforgiving laws of nature would get them. We see this phenomenon in our prisons, where inmates prefer to be out in the yard even if “out in the yard” there are other inmates waiting there to kill them. Being killed by one’s fellows is far more preferable than the worst of fates—solitary confinement. In ancient times the worst thing that could happen to you was banishment.

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