This marks the end of the fall semester here at St. Joseph’s College and the freshman seminar that created this blog. I thank each and every one of the students for their insightful comments, images, and posts and hope that any visitors will enjoy the ways in which Nature inspires us to reflection and appreciation. A big thank you goes out to David Macauley whose work Elemental Philosophy served as the catalyst for this blog and our own discussions and posts.
W. C. Turgeon
12/15/20
Since modern times we have struggled to master nature around us. We pull strings. Occasionally nature reminds us that our hold on her is tenuous at best: Superstorm Sandy on the East Coast of the United States, Katrina and the more recent hurricanes that savaged the gulf coast states, the fires out West, and perhaps the typhoon that decimated the Philippines in November 2013, among many other reminders. And yet, we continue to work towards creating nature 2.0; a better version of that which is on its own. Of course, we have also transformed nature through our oft unintended carelessness, always assuming that Nature will pick up after us.
Here are some images mentioned in Macauley’s chapter seven. Can you identify them?
Orion Nebulae
The last interstice that Macauley offers us mediates on our relationship to space, “the final frontier.” I posted a page that offers some of my thoughts in response. Why do the stars and the vast outreaches of the universe beyond continue to seduce our gaze upward? And is it forward looking or avoiding the earth home we have?
And another vision of a journey
