Thinking like Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson probably never went whitewater rafting in his lifetime but he definitely felt a strong affinity to the natural world and wrote eloquently about what he saw and experienced.   A central theme to his philosophy on nature can be summed up by his remark that "In the woods we return to reason and faith." By this he meant that as long as there is wilderness there will always be for our edification a pure example of life, sanity, and balance, as well as a place where all people can go to gain a deeper sense of their spiritual kinship with the rest of creation.
Emerson also meant that within the pureness of nature there exists a sanctuary from the conventions of society. Nature is real. There are no agendas there, only freedom and deliberate action. Society is a convention, an artifice designed by people to ensure a degree of conformity among the masses. Throughout our lives we experience much conflict and unhappiness as a result of trying to satisfy the designs and the whims of society. We are set up to feel guilty, inadequate and even cazy when we don't mesh.
Only by comparing the two do we discover the shallowness of society and the transience of its demands. We see that our modern culture tends to alienate us from nature and our natural, authentic selves--pulling us its way when we are naturally inclined towards another. Without the natural world the illusions of society would become hopelessly real and binding for all of us. Without nature and her wild places there would be no refuge for the real. Freedom and authenticity would be lost and living would lose its appeal. As Christopher Camuto cautions in his book Another Country, "A world uninteresting to wolves will one day be uninteresting to human beings."