I love the ambition of this essay. And how BPL is a place where these deeper topics get attention.
AK – I wondered about this as well–not only the indigenous perspective but how other non-Western contemplative traditions fit into the thesis. The indigenous perspective, for one, is reciprocal. Our culture has taken a long time to understand the value of that perspective, and only recently. (One reference point being the popularity of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing.) Buddhist contemplative practice would be another example–letting the natural world flourish for its own sake, which of course also includes us. In Ryan’s defense though, I think he was pretty open about using Aristotle as a focused lens, rather than trying to build on a more comprehensive set of viewpoints.
Viewed as a place where we flourish still hints at nature as something instrumental, for our use. It won’t win any political arguments, but isn’t nature valuable for its own sake? As the only intact evidence of the causal chain that produced us? Call it God, or god, or whatever you want, but no matter how granular science explains it all, no amount of names, labels, or systems get to the bottom of the mystery and the inscrutability of it all. Allowing space for that inherent mystery to exist in its fullest form is impossible to price.
All that said, I 100% agree with “a week immersed in news or entertainment passes without transformation. A week in the wilderness can alter one’s entire life trajectory.”
