A naturalist is someone who, in sensing the parts of nature with a mind trained in biology and ecology, and a heart trained in beauty, senses beyond the parts to a transcendental kingdom, the spirit of nature. A John Muir naturalist, beside being a naturalist, has John Muir’s fight to see that wilderness areas are abundantly and perpetually preserved, sustenance for spiritual well-being, where nothing ever goes tiring or disappointing or betrays itself by a false note. Accordingly, here is a passage from The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 155:
John Muir naturalists believe that nature should be put off limits to recreation that mars the mirror of God or the solitude needed to reflect in the mirror. However much some clamor to drive machines up and down dunes and hills, and about lakes and rivers - and businesses to sell the machines - what makes recreational sense and commercial sense fails to make spiritual sense.
The sound or sight of one machine crashing through sacrosanct wilderness, or marks left by one, closes the possibility of being seized with the sacred enlargement of the present and the place. Contradictory, isn’t it, to bar machines from the Washington National Cathedral while inviting them into nature’s Cathedral? The joyriders are hardly after quiet and being alone; crowds and noise amplify their excitement. Let them dodge their boredom at stadiums, shopping malls, and race tracks.
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For a brief biography of John Muir, click here.
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