Our Connection to the Land

Close-up of Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA

Would you like to use this image? Click here to use it.

There used to be a time, particularly in the Western world, that the average human was rural as opposed to urban, and much more connected to – dependent upon – the land and weather. Imagine a farmer wishing for rain. Now imagine when most of us were subsistence farmers. It was clear to see how our subsistence depended directly upon the land and its fertility. Nowadays, it is much more likely that news of continued dry, arid weather results in a happy city-dwellers and trips to the beach. We only seem to acknowledge this persistent link to nature when it threatens us with climate change or forest fires. This is not to say that our distancing ourselves from a direct dependence upon soil, sun, and water is necessarily a bad thing, simply that placing our reliance upon the land out of sight and out of mind does not obviate it. Reminding myself of this fact helps me appreciate the rain as well as the sunshine.