One day Eliot met some of the local kids at the elementary school and invited them down to the finca to show them our seedling nursery. A month later the kids showed up wondering why we weren't at the farm that morning. I reminded them that that we had invited them a month ago, and things do happen sometimes. Since then the kids have become really excited about trees, and come over almost daily wanting to help us. Sometimes they even teach us a thing or two. When Greivin (10 yrs old) shows up with his brothers Luigi (7) and Jhonny (12..and thats how he spells his name), they almost always bring seeds. Some seeds are endangered species that we havent even found yet.
Being around the kids has reminded me of how, as we get older, we become estranged from our fundamental connection to mother earth. Showing the kids how tamarinds sprout or talking about the monkies and snakes that we've seen genuinely excites them. The excitement is contagious.
I believe that the youth still posses an inherent connection to the environment, born with a love for their environment, instead of a need to dominate it. If we can harbor and develop this passion among children, we are that much closer to reparing what our forefathers have squandered. Cheers to the YOUTH!!!
Pura Vida
Brendan
4 comments:
I am not sure if I agree that kids are born with any sense of environmental stewarship. My great-uncle just visited and he was telling me his stories of blowing up goldfish when he was 7 with ammunition he found from downed German planes during WWII. Some kids quickly become destroyers, or mini-terrorists. I think children are malleable, they can be influenced by their environment to care for their environment....or to blow it all up!
-Eliot
When children come into this world they are totally dependent on their environment, the thing is that nothing changes. As we grow older we become accustomed to the dominate relationship that society reflects. Childern are more aware of this dependence, I believe, and are more connected (ie less removed) from their natural environment.
I agree that children are dependent on their environment (ie their mother and maybe father) when they are born and as they are nurtured through early childhood, but is this "environment" the same as a "natural environment" or what we think of as nature? For example, a child born in New York City, in a hospital, brought home to an appartment to a mom and dad who watch television, eat McDonalds, and take anti-depressants....is that a "natural environment"? I am not sure that that child will ever be "in touch" with the idea of nature that I think you are talking about.
-Eliot
The idea that we are born with any sense at all will go away when you have some of your own. A newborn baby is the ultimate in short-term selfishness.
We adults have the responsibility of setting the example of stewardship, and demonstrating love. Children who experience love will choose love first.
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