Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
- John Muir
There was a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by some eminent scientists and researchers based at Stanford University which attempted to measure the impact of a walk in a natural setting versus walking next to a busy urban street teeming with traffic and noise. They were measuring the tendency of man to "brood" or be stressed by the day to day activities of living in our modern world and whether or not a person would be changed based upon two different kinds of walking experiences. They measured before and after blood flow to a specific portion of the brain which they know to be an indicator of this type of stress. All very impressive in academia, and probably impressive to those who issue grants for this type of research, whoever they are.
But the first thing that struck me was, "for this they had to spend time, money, computer time and untold days and nights of discussion about methodology, research procedures, et.al.?"
John Muir must have been a genius, for he knew this truth intuitively, no research methodology, testing and control groups, no exact measurement of blood flow required.
Yes, I have become a disciple of John Muir, for this humble and driven man described simply and eloquently over one hundred years ago what many of us struggle to explain to others to this day, the "why" of what compels us to put on a pack and go to the mountains. The oft quoted Sir Edmond Hillary, the first to climb Everest, when asked why he climbed replied, "because it is there." But that is frustrating, it is too simple and not nearly enough. I suspect he knew this, but the answer made for a good sound bite, even then an important thing.
What John Muir understood and expressed so beautifully fills me with awe...
The beauty of the aspens blowing in the breeze on a Sierra mountainside.
The pounding of your heart, the aching in your legs, as you struggle up a difficult pass, which is all worth it for the reward of the view at your feet. The knowledge that you are incredibly privileged to be able to experience that view, and that you have earned it in a way no city dweller who has never ventured forth will ever understand. All who go to the mountains agree -- may it never be easy, it would cheapen what is so hard won.
The roar of a mountain stream or raging river when you come upon it and realize that you have to cross it, somehow.
How inconsequential one man is in the midst of such beauty, the massive rock walls, green meadows and alpenglow on a distant peak in the waning hours of day in the early evening.
And how important all of this is not just to an individual, but to the future of man, to our society. And how it can so easily be lost, either through neglect, indifference or misplaced priorities.
One hundred years later we still have not learned the lessons, embraced the wisdom of John Muir. We fund studies of blood flow in the brain to try to prove the value of a walk in the woods. Really? This truth should be self evident.
If we understood the wisdom of Muir we would instead expend our finite resources in helping to preserve and protect wild places, to educate the next generation of the importance of such stewardship. John Muir, if he could speak from the mystical beyond, would want us to be more courageous. It is easy to spend time and money on blood flow to prove the obvious, much more difficult to enable and demand that people understand and experience the value of nature and wild places to their soul and that of mankind.
John Muir was a genius, if we would only listen.
© 2015 James McGregor Gibson