The Limits of Language

Old tree roots by a hiking trail at Kortright Conservation Centre in southern Ontario, May 2010

I’ve started this blog to make our links to nature more conscious.  We arise from nature, after all.  However, many of us feel severed from nature as we increasingly live in cities and are focused on electronic devices. We often don’t see a place for ourselves in the world that we more readily see as natural—the world of trees, plants, other animals, mountain ranges, prairies, deserts, oceans….

The English language doesn’t help with this.  Perhaps there are languages in the world that do better at noting or suggesting our bond with nature.  In English, we separate the human and the natural as we assign different words to each.  I believe we need new words for what it’s imperative that we consider.  Perhaps something like humanature would be a start.  I don’t mean to suggest that a few new words would magically reunite us with who we are, but they might be pointers that help us.

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