RECONNECTING WITH NATURE
By Jim Zola

Sometimes, on cool fall evenings, talking with good friends on the patio after a meal and a beer or two, we can solve the world’s problems (or feel we can). This was the case when an old college chum visited and we got to talking about "what is wrong with kids today." This was our conclusion (get ready for some big generalizations here). Connectiveness.

To be more exact, the lack of connectiveness. Kids today have connections to movies at home and video games and interactive computer programs and the Internet. Not to suggest that these connections are bad. Or not all bad. But this theory of connectiveness to create a balanced individual requires a more complex mix.

What we came up with, while faced with solving the world’s problems in the backyard as dark approached, is that kids today have lost connections with the family. Problems with family connectiveness are not a new concept. Every politician on the stump or social worker on the street will tell you that the world’s woes are due to disconnected children and families. But I see the connectiveness problem to be deeper, more earthbound. I think kids today would benefit from a renewed connection to nature.

I grew up in a family that frequently spent family vacations in a tent. Not that the outdoors was second nature to my parents. They were both city kids. But apparently they found a connection with the natural world. Perhaps it was just that they were so lacking in funds that the only way they could afford to have fun was to "rough it". (Nowadays camping is not necessarily cheap). Picnics, tent camping, mountain climbs, swimming in the coldest water, snoozing to the sound of ocean waves.

Not that this kind of upbringing guarantees anything. My sisters and I have all continued the traditions of communing with the natural world with various degrees of ease. When my wife and I were married, our honeymoon involved a narrow-gauge railway ride into the San Juan Mountains and several days of backpacking. What a glorious way to start a union. We were so exhilarated by the August beauty of it all that we overexerted ourselves at 13,000 feet and ending up with altitude sickness.

The first time we took our first born camping was when he was 6 weeks old. He was a natural and we were young. We took him backpacking and camping whenever we could. When he was 8, we took him on a ten-day backpacking trip on Isle Royale in Michigan (along with my younger sister and her son, Kyle).

For the past few years, with the addition of two little ones and the responsibilities that come with home ownership, Scouting has been a savior for us. Our oldest son goes on several hikes each month with the Boy Scouts. This past summer, he hiked over 90 miles of the Appalachian Trail over a two-week trip.

A few weeks ago, my son went on a weekend hike in the mountains of Virginia. He came home with a story about how he had run across a yellow jacket nest on the trail and been attacked, rolling down a hill with pack and all and finally jumping in a little mountain creek. He was stung about a dozen times, mostly around his ankles and on his head. To hear him retelling this story to his mom and I, you could tell that the story was on its way to legend. Something to tell his daughter or son someday.

If I had started this article with the story of the yellow jackets, I am sure that some of you would have shuddered and shook your heads and felt justified in not having any real connection with the world beyond the comforts of home. But the point is that that event, only a bump on his life path, only served to strengthen his connection to the world beyond our control. He had an experience, survived it, and goes on.

Maybe a connection with nature will not solve the world’s problems, or save our children from themselves. I think it might help. At least it couldn’t hurt. Much. Nothing that a little salve can’t cure. At least this is what I thought on the patio that evening as the darkness swallowed the day and I turned off the light and went inside.
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