A tree requires no context for their existence. The tree needs no excuse for being where they are. For millennia, this was the case for human beings as well. “Outside” has surely been a concept in development since the first hominids retreated into caves for comfort and safety. Slowly, the walls closed. The ceiling descended. The ground was covered. Foundation poured over. Finally, doors were shut. Somewhere in this process, “outdoors” emerged. Slowly in the centuries since, the word came to encapsulate a set of beliefs and practices around humans leaving the safety of their walls to pursue adventure, recreation, and connection in what we call “nature”. Earth’s most prolific ape invented myriad tools for “the outdoors”, not least of which were the conceptual frameworks they constructed to define and justify their activities.
Are these frames necessary? Is a walk in the woods a “hike”? Is it “camping” to sleep on a bed of pine boughs or in the warm summer grass, the way a deer does? Deer do not camp. Goats do not hike. All Earth borne beings are bound to walk her surface. All are drawn to rest under the shade of her trees.
In Earth’s 21st Century, humans in the industrially occupied regions flocked to mountains and forests, maps in hand. Gear-clad. Boots laced. Under the plans and agendas, a simple biological truth was tugging. Human totality necessarily entails direct physical, emotional, and metaphysical connection with the other beings of the planet Earth. The runners and campers and peak-baggers felt this, but few could name it. Humanity was orphaned. Estranged from their kin. The rivers, boulders, birds, and bugs had been calling. Crying for us. Those known as poets and sages would hear the cries, and in their own ways could attempt to learn the language.
It was eventually discovered, nearly too late - That the frameworks devised to facilitate experiences with “nature” were intimately tied with the estrangement that had cursed humanity. Finally, after centuries of abuse and misunderstanding, humanity came to understand that the wound lied in the very concept of “nature”. At the brink, as Earth’s strength had nearly waned entirely - Humans relinquished their sense of separateness and superiority. This had been the key. The reintegration of Human\Nature.
