brings a spanner and wrench view to actions which in their
particular nature defy functional analysis.
Or course science is not wrong. Or rather it is only as wrong as
the medical textbook which describes the human act of love as the
behaviour necessary for the perpetuation of the species homo
sapiens. It is just inadequate. Fixated by the big picture it obscures
the detail in the little ones which make everyday life everyday
living. Anyone who bothers to watch anything alive will be struck
chiefly by one thing. That is its incredible exuberance. I took my ten
month old daughter to Bempton Cliffs near Flamborough Head in
Yorkshire, near the end of the breeding season when the seabirds
are just putting the finishing touches to their terrestrial existence
before embarking on the long winter sojourn at sea, and she
couldn’t contain her delight at the furious activity going on beneath
her. As far as I know she had little idea about what she was looking
at and listening to but her response was immediate, happy and
untutored. She knew exuberance when she came across it. At her
birth some friends sent us a quote: “Man is born to live, not to
prepare for life” (Boris Pasternak). If contemporary naturalists were
to be believed present life is only a preparation for the future, and
Why is any of this important? Well one thing that is disturbing
about the plethora of nature interest programmes is the relentless
imperative to fit nature into human systems of thinking. Thus some
equations, almost as if an animal were the quintessence of the
enlightened self-interested individual. Nature ends up purely as a
zone of scarcity requiring astute management
particular nature defy functional analysis.
Or course science is not wrong. Or rather it is only as wrong as
the medical textbook which describes the human act of love as the
behaviour necessary for the perpetuation of the species homo
sapiens. It is just inadequate. Fixated by the big picture it obscures
the detail in the little ones which make everyday life everyday
living. Anyone who bothers to watch anything alive will be struck
chiefly by one thing. That is its incredible exuberance. I took my ten
month old daughter to Bempton Cliffs near Flamborough Head in
Yorkshire, near the end of the breeding season when the seabirds
are just putting the finishing touches to their terrestrial existence
before embarking on the long winter sojourn at sea, and she
couldn’t contain her delight at the furious activity going on beneath
her. As far as I know she had little idea about what she was looking
at and listening to but her response was immediate, happy and
untutored. She knew exuberance when she came across it. At her
birth some friends sent us a quote: “Man is born to live, not to
prepare for life” (Boris Pasternak). If contemporary naturalists were
to be believed present life is only a preparation for the future, and
every individual only a cipher for forces an imperatives whoseconnection with the individual is practically arbitrary.
Why is any of this important? Well one thing that is disturbing
about the plethora of nature interest programmes is the relentless
imperative to fit nature into human systems of thinking. Thus some
ecological thinking veers dangerously close to imposing economicthinking on life. Everything is seen in terms of input/output
equations, almost as if an animal were the quintessence of the
enlightened self-interested individual. Nature ends up purely as a
zone of scarcity requiring astute management