Life: A Narrative
Nature, I have learned, is brutally honest. There is nothing withheld to the viewer; it does not boast nor coddle, and it is never disarming with either its unpredictability or uniformity. Nature is revealing — it is love. Perhaps that is why Thoreau was so smitten with it; nature tells its story unremittingly, regardless of the listener — it does not, in fact, even need a listener. It continues its tale in the face of opposition and adapts accordingly. The only thing required is for one to choose to listen.
When we arrived on Santa Rosa Island I numbed myself to all expectancies, and I am very happy for that. I have taken from life that bias (something entirely different than conviction) shrouds and negates any understanding that may be gained from an affair. With that perspective in mind, I gathered a great understanding from the faculty.
With Matt Furmanski, an art professor, we examined how certain aspects such as the wind influenced the formation of the island, and how that contributes to the story, or narrative, of the island. matt spoke of how he unfettered buoys with lights attached just off the shoreline and took long-exposure photographs of their routes. this gave him an interpretation of the tide, as well as an artistic perspective on nature.
We also took part in surveying the frequency of certain organisms on the shoreline with the island’s primary caretaker Hanna Cause, an environmental scientist. We would progressively venture further into the tide — yet another interpretation of it. This time, however, the examination was more clinical; it fed to the environmental perspective regarding nature.
Both of these, however different, held that commonality: interpretation. This is the most enlightening thing I took from the island. In one of the most recent publications of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, there is an introduction written by Neil Gaimon that discourses the point I am discussing rather well. In short, Gaimon gives the very profound notion that if someone expresses their understanding of a narrative, then they are probably right; however, if they say that is all it is about, then they are probably wrong. Life is one big narrative, wherein there lies a finitely infinite number narratives. It is the narrative collective, nature being one of many. Just as Matt and Cause had their different, valid interpretations of the tide and its effects, so too does anyone else. That is the importance of interdisciplinary understanding. Humanity thrives on understanding other narratives, for without it we would move about aimlessly in a tiny sandbox of our own ego. That understanding is used to build upon one’s own narrative and in turn help others expand theirs. It is a cycle of improvement, and a very lenient, forgiving one at that. Nature is a microcosm for that pure narrative of life, and, just like nature, it requires willing, immersed participants. To be cliché, understanding is within the eye of the beholder, though the question remains in whether or not one will utilize that.
