On Perception

Leopold, the outdoors; the things for which we are hunting.

I was sitting at my writing desk the other day, looking out the window at deer prints in the snow, waiting for a transmission from the universe, when A Sand Country Almanac waved at me from the bookshelf.

Normally, this would be disconcerting, but I have heard from my friend

Matt Smythe

that Leopold does indeed speak out from time to time (Matt even being known to carry the book in his pack while fishing alone, Almanac making good company)¹. Lacking any inspiration to write, I had been contemplating etching into my desk a reminder to “beware of all enterprises that require new clothes” — advice from Thoreau via Vonnegut; I was happy to let Aldo distract me.

“You know,” he said, “‘it is, by common consent, a good thing for people to get back to nature.’”

I did know this: Leopold had written about it at length.²

I waited for him to continue.

“‘We seek contacts with nature because we derive pleasure from them.’ The problem is, it seems we’ve gotten to the point where these contacts are commoditized. In the never-ending hunt for nature, ‘recreation has become a self-destructive process of seeking but never quite finding.’”

Is that so, I wondered. I thought about my own interactions with nature — pushing out further, to more remote trailheads, in order to avoid the summer hiking crowd. Getting up earlier and earlier to be the first on the mountain, collecting fresh tracks. Descending deeper into the woods, leaving behind abandoned tree stands to some other hunter who took “the easy” route.

Isn’t that human nature? Aren’t we, like Tenneson’s Ulysses, programmed “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield?”

“Maybe,” Aldo responded, “but what are we seeking? After all, isn’t our recreating just ‘reviving, in play, a drama formerly inherent in daily life.’ Satiated by the bounty of modern society, aren’t we just turning to the wilderness to ‘find, capture, and carry away’ some ‘idea of trophy?’”

I hadn’t really thought of that. Is the way in which we interact with nature in our modern society only transactional? Are we buying new clothes for new enterprises and heading into the woods only to walk right back out once we’ve got our antler or feather or fin? Certainly that’s not me, right? Certainly I have a greater appreciation than one of just the harvest? I’m not just in it for the trophy — I value the experience! I’m not chasing nature just for the sake of the chase; and, even Aldo admits, “the pleasure is in the seeking as well as the getting.”

But what are we getting?

“Perception, you ninny!” Aldo shouted, waking me from my reverie. "'The outstanding characteristic of perception is that it entails no consumption and no dilution of any resource.’ It doesn’t matter if you want eat the deer or watch the deer or write about the deer — you still need to perceive it! ‘Perception is the only true creative part’ of recreation! That’s how we live ‘the good life’ — by noticing it! By perceiving it — not just as a commodity, but as all the ‘natural processes by which the land and all the living things upon it have achieved their characteristic form.’ When you perceive the land, not just consume it, you gain a sense of husbandry. You become a steward, not an owner, not just be trophy-hunter. In this way, you also give something back — even if it’s just your ‘own satisfaction with little or no attrition to the land or life.’”

“Recreation,” he continued, clearly on a roll, “‘is not the outdoors but our reaction to it!’ Sure, some trophy-hunting is fine — ‘the prerogative of youth’ and ‘nothing to apologize for’ — but it’s ‘‘disquieting’ when that hunter never grows up. To that hunter, ‘he must possess, invade, appropriate’ — ‘the wilderness he cannot see has no value.’ That gives ‘the universal assumption that an unused hinterland is rendering no service to society,’ that ‘a blank space on the map is a useless waste.’

“But no! That blank space ‘is the most valuable part! The real value of outdoor recreation is not just what we take from it, but instead how it builds ‘receptivity into the still unlovely human mind!” This is America! The ‘pure essence of “outdoor America!” An America not reduced to possession!”³

With that, Aldo retreated, panting and out of breath. It was the most effort I’d seen from a book in awhile. I let him be and turned back to the window. I still hadn’t written anything, but I had a lot to think about.

1. Here’s Matt’s piece which inspired this one.

2. This piece quotes heavily from Aldo Leopold’s essay “Conservation Esthetic,” which can be read in full here. Actual Leopold quotes are presented in-line, the rest of the dialogue is fictional (but hopefully in his spirit).

3. A reminder that you own the public land in America, something unique to the American experience. It’s our imperative and obligation to support this — even if you don’t personally use them — especially against the recent pushes for privatization and transfer. Public lands belong in public hands.