When facing the first part of this question, I was immediately flooded with an array of enchanting experiences I have had with the non-human world. I try to be outside as much as possible, something I have strived to do since I was young. I grew up in Northern California and spent much time hiking nearby mountains and swimming in the ocean. Yet my best experiences with nature come from my travels; as an avid traveler, I have spent much time exploring the non-human world in other countries. After mentally sifting through my experiences, I remembered one experience which has stuck with me and still affects me to this day.

Last semester I studied abroad in Cape Town, South Africa. I lived at the base of Table Mountain, twenty minutes from the ocean, two hours from the rolling hills of wine country. Yet my most thrilling engagement with the non-human world occurred when I went on a road trip through Southern Africa for the summer. Part of the trip consisted of us driving through Botswana and stopping off in the Kalahari Desert. While there, we hired a guide to drive us to a salt pan nearby where we were camping. Known as the Makgadikgadi Pan, the area is one of the largest salt pans in the world and was once the bed of Lake Makgadikgadi. This lake used to exist three million years ago, but has since completely dried. When we arrived at the location, we were driven into the center of the pan which took ages. Finally the driver stopped and we were able to get out. The ground beneath us was dry and cracked, yet slightly soft and bouncy. As far as the eye could see was ground like this, with absolutely nothing in view but the same landscape. There were no trees, no shrubbery, and no animals. We immediately scattered in all directions in order to experience the view individually. I eventually walked so far the truck we arrived in was only almost nonexistent, and I was unable to see the outline of any of my friends despite the flatness of the region. Being alone in such a flat expanse of desert had a profound effect on me. I felt immediately engulfed by its power and sheer size. I struggled with bliss stemming from such beauty and also with fear from such power, as I felt incredibly trivial. From this, I realized how important nature is in conjuring up these sentiments simultaneously. As I was becoming aware of this, a single orange butterfly passed by me. As another life form, I felt an immediate connection to it. Though even smaller than I, this butterfly was similarly experiencing the same connection to nature, and I immediately admired its struggle to pass through a daunting region of arid, uninhabited land. Unfortunately, human beings do not have the same courage, but rather attempt to trump such landscapes in order to accommodate and manipulate.

For me, nature’s beauty comes from its ability to make us feel insignificant. It makes us feel as though there is something larger, something beyond our individual worlds, something that can engulf us. It is unfortunate that humans have slowly come to dominate earth and the environment because we have lost a lot of these feelings that nature invoke in us. We have this pretentious assumption that we are superior because we have tools that can conquer both the human and non-human world. Yet being in possession of such tools does not mean we have to wield them. It is incredibly important for us to realize our place in nature, especially now in our current state of environmental degradation. If we continue to ignore nature by cutting down trees, polluting the air, damaging other species, and destroying ecosystems, we will become so far removed that we are unable to see the larger picture. I remember when I lived in South Africa I would notice large, imposing trees that looked a little too perfect and slightly out of place. After encountering a few of these trees I realized they were not trees at all, but rather telephone polls that are disguised as trees to create an illusion of nature. A lot of our world now consists of such illusions, which suggests we care only for the image rather than for the meaning. It is important to diverge from such attempts to create nature and rather focus on attempts to preserve nature. Striving to save true nature will not only help to make us more humble and aware that we are merely a small portion of the entire earth, but it will also ensure that future generations will similarly experience the beauty of nature and its overwhelming power.