The King’s Green Pad

We are collectively insane. At least that’s what developmental psychologist and environmentalist Paul Shepard argued in his book . We are insane because we live alienated from, and fearful of, the natural world that gave us birth and within which we were designed to flourish. We hide in our built environments, and like young children hide our heads under the covers in terror of the monsters—-the monsters we have made of nature in our imaginations.

True, many human cultures carry in their myths, if not always in their practice, an ancient wisdom about our deep connection with the earth and how to live at peace therein. However, Paul Shepard claimed, and I have also pointed out in a previous blog, that we may have taken a wrong turning as a species when we invented agriculture. While cultivation did not perhaps HAVE to lead to the profound alienation we now experience from the natural world, our history suggests that it did. With agriculture came abundance, a population boom, leisure for the development of culture and technology, and an increasing separation of ourselves from the ‘other’—-the other life of the planet. This separation became a fear—fear of nature, fear of the ‘other’, and, as Henri Nouwen wisely says, loving answers NEVER come from fear-filled questions.

The problem with our alienation from and fear of nature is not just that they lead us to destroy that which gives us life, but that they distort and even amputate our psychological development. We cannot develop normally when we live in isolation from and fear of the very world for which we are beautifully designed and indeed, called to care for.

All creation groans as we hide under the covers, blinded by our isolation and our fear to the rich, beautiful and nourishing world around us. Yet, just as a neglected child instinctively longs for and recognizes that to flourish she needs to be in loving and secure relationships with others, so Shepard believed that we still have within us a longing and a recognition that our way of living is deeply distorted, and that it is hurting us as much as it is hurting the planet. A neglected child seeks, sometimes blindly and sometimes inappropriately, ways to fulfill her longings, and if she is blessed or lucky someone may see her need and be in a position to wisely help her heal. We too may blindly grope for ways to heal ourselves, but we can also trust that God will see our need, and give illumination to our journey if we will only come out from under the covers and look for it.

This post was written by Heather Looy, Professor of Psychology at The King’s University College in Edmonton, AB.