A Significant Life (113)

“Those who dwell as scientists or laymen among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.”  Rachel Carson

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”  Henry David Thoreau Walden

Thinking more about Earth Day and mother nature in general, I look back to the work of Rachel Carson. She was a pioneer in her education, her way of thinking, her work and her life. She brought science to us in a readable form and ignited a generation of naturalists and ‘tree huggers.’

My own life was impacted by Silent Spring. It was published in 1962 when I was too young to have a clue that it existed. Thankfully, I discovered it in the early 70s when I was old enough to read and understand it. They say that because of the force of that one book and the horrors of pesticides, the EPA was started and DDT was banned in the U.S.

I was lucky to have parents who were organic gardeners and who preserved most of our food and took us out looking for ‘wild’ food like grapes, asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, mushrooms, onions and other yummy things. My Dad fished and bought our meat from local farmers whom he knew and trusted. When I was a child, I loved gardening and looking for things growing wild in the country. I still love finding wild asparagus and just recently found two wonderful pecan trees to gather from this coming fall. To note here is that my parents weren’t organic gardeners because they were on a mission. That’s simply how they had been taught by their parents and the canning/preserving was because they were frugal and had 4 children. Also, the food just tasted darn good.

As a little step off course here, I remember when my Mom bought TV dinners for us kids for a treat on Saturday night. We were so excited to try them and, oh, were they not good! But, it was still fun and Mom did give us a chance to try out what was being advertised on TV. We also didn’t go to fast food restaurants, except as a rare treat. We only had ice cream when we had relatives over and we hand cranked it. Wonderful tasting, but it was a treat, not an everyday thing. And, finally, although my Dad owned service stations and we stored ‘pop’ in our garage for the machines at the stations, we rarely had any ourselves. We just didn’t like it too much and it was expensive. (Yes, at 10 cents, it was still expensive for a family of 4 on a budget.)

It was interesting to me to see that Rachel Carson enjoyed reading Beatrix Potter when she was a child. Me too. There wasn’t a mention of her reading Walden but I somehow think she might have taken an interest in the writings of Henry David Thoreau. She choose a life that was difficult for a woman at that time–at this time too. She was dedicated to her science and to her writing. She also died too young, at age 56, from the overall effects of breast cancer.

I think of people like Rachel Carson, Henry David Thoreau, and Beatrix Potter when I am out tromping around on paths not much taken. I think most people would benefit from getting out there in the wild or on country roads and letting nature works it’s magic on them.

Maybe, in all that tromping around, some would find the path to their own significant life.