Well, we've all talked a lot about what went wrong in 2021, but I don't want to dwell on that. Good things happened too, although our media seeks to keep us as depressed and hopeless as possible, on a diet of disasters and bad news and celebrity banality galore. You have to look for balance. Seek out positivity. Excavate a new and beneficial path. It's for that reason I have promised myself more time with Nature in 2022.
Like many people with Asperger's/ASC, I have always found comfort and wonder in the natural world: Alone on a beach, in a forest, by the side of a pond - I can while away hours, watching a spider clambering through the grass, or a Jay, burying peanuts and marking the place with a few well-placed leaves. Equally, I can be transported by the song of a Dunnock or a Starling in my garden, or hang motionless in the water on a solo night-dive, torch off, to watch the bioluminescence of the plankton swirling around my hands. Nothing brings me such peace as when I am alone with nature.
I have never really thought too much about what I need for my own peace of mind - I have always done what I thought was needed by others around me - parents, friends, my family, my employers... Now, however, when I consider how I can feel such desperate anxiety, even in familiar environments and in trusted company, I am certain that I need to make a significant change and immerse myself in nature, once and for all.
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by every aspect of the natural world - from geology and palaeontology and detailed scientific aspects of entomological studies to bird-watching, underwater exploration and growing my own fruit and veg. I have created countless paintings, illustrations, photos, projects and collections to extend my connection. My years in environmental consultancy taught me how intimately entwined our lives are with the natural world, despite our efforts to separate ourselves from it, and it also taught me how complicated, impactful and effecting those relationships can be.
My years in education brought home how much our young people have lost as our society forgets its relationship with the natural world. Will this lead to a society that is ignorant of nature? It has certainly distanced itself from the devastating impact we have had upon it, so perhaps. It is true I have been dismayed by the lack of interest shown by young people I have taught in sustainability, plastics in the environment, ocean acidification and climate change and even just being out of doors. But when I witness the wonder shown by a small child as a pill bug unrolls from its little segmented marble, or when they see the caterpillar miraculously become a chrysalis, I know it is recoverable. Indeed, we must keep trying. The alternative is unthinkable.
My own son has been brought up with Nature, land and sea. His curiosity was indulged at every opportunity, visiting amazing places, learning to scuba dive, joining scouts, meeting and talking with ecologists and naturalists from an early age. I knew he was 'hooked' the day he came in from the garden and told me how some of the little wolf spiders were carrying tiny snail shells instead of egg cases. So, what about those who have missed those opportunities, who have been shut down by fear, or lured by the comfort of minimum effort, and cannot be persuaded to look up from their smart phones? How do we reach them?
When I think about social media and consider how it can corrupt, misinform and ensnare, I temper my thoughts by considering its ability to influence, enchant and educate. If they won't come out to meet nature, we must take it to them. So why give our children these powerful and poorly-understood tools, only to complain about how they use it? If we gave a child a hammer and no instructions, they would probably destroy something with it long before it occurred to them to build something with it. We must be ready with materials to use, be prepared to show them what can be done, what is achievable, accessible, and be confident in our answers when they ask 'why?'. Only then, can we tempt them out into the real, authentic world and all its wonders.
I'll never forget the expression on the face of the teenage student who had never tasted a raspberry before (only the fake flavours in sweets) as he stripped the canes on our school allotment of their fruit. Likewise, I will never forget the day we found a juvenile blue shark in the shallow waters off our favourite beach: We tried to show the local holidaymakers its stunning colour and explain how it may have become disorientated, but they were convinced it was dangerous - children were pulled from the water by their parents. My consternation only increased when those same parents later encouraged their children into the water to feed their unused crabbing bait to a large male grey seal... There is much to learn, but the effort is essential, and this is something I will never tire of.
