Karley's Transcendentalist Essay 2013 (rough draft)

Karley Guthmiller

September 29, 2013

AP Lit

Mr. Lavender

Transcendentalist Essay 2013 (rough draft) 

            A wise man named Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me.”  To me nature is an aspect of life worth living for; it speaks out to me in a way where I understand it and look at its point of view. It sends emotions of adrenalin and compassion racing through my mind and body when steeping in to it. Nature is able to factor out reality so I can walk into the light and enjoy its presence as I disregard society and the technology and stress that comes with it.

            There are many ways nature can affect someone. For me nature just keeps climbing and surprising me every chance I get from the smallest cricket chirping to a white blizzard. Nature can be as simple as walking outside and feeling the brisk wind brush up against your face and fly through your hair to hiking a fourteen thousand foot mountain. Now I admit I do not appreciate nature as much as I should or like to, but to be blunt, I just do not have time to. If I could, I would spend every minute outside enjoying God’s magnificent creations.

            I enjoy nature through snowmobiling, hiking, running, hunting, four wheeling, wakeboarding and even just an occasional walk with my dog. There are so many ways one can enjoy nature. My all time favorite way is hunting. There are so many critical details you notice when you are up in the mountains from scouting out your prey to pulling the trigger at the right time and place. Emerson says, “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society.” Nature is my chamber I retire to when I need to escape the wrath of society. .To enjoy nature, you must enjoy it as if it was the last thing on Earth.

            When I wake up in the morning and stare at the pitch black morning sky, I think to myself, how spectacular this experience is. Many people don’t get to have those kinds of Kodak moments because they are too wrapped up in society and its problems. Nature has endless beauties like the mountains, animals, trees, skies and so many more.

            As I start climbing up the mountain, I use light made by man himself to help guide me into the darkness. Then later when the sunrise comes, the lights go off and nature starts to speak to me. While climbing up the steep slope, I start to see nature at its finest. I see the small pebbles on the ground all clumped together, the huge boulders on the sides of the mountains, the trees waving hi, the wind whipping at my face and of course I hear animals greeting one another.

            There’s a saying that goes, you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. This is perfect for nature, because it’s the cold hard truth. Right now the beetle kill is terrible and now people are trying to save the trees, before man y people thought they were just trees, but not anymore. Nature is a part of everyone whether they  know it or not. It takes something special for us to realize what’s in front of our eyes; in this case it’s the wonders nature has to offer. Nature can be outside your house, in the forest and even by the ocean. Nature is something that wants to be heard and is ignored too often.

            Nature can be described as more than just trees, rocks, mountains, grass and dirt. When I’m out hunting I can look over my shoulder and see the outlining of my tracks in the snow. When I get to different terrain, I can feel the crunching of the leaves up underneath my boots screaming let me out. I can feel the trees brushing up against my back saying, ouch, don’t touch me. When the sun becomes brighter, I can see the Irish green, goddess gold, blazing orange and stop sign red leaves frolicking around in every which direction as if they were slaves that had just been freed.  

As I look around, I cannot see, but I can hear the river roaring like a lion as if it was defending pride rock. If I stay still and quiet as a mouse I can use my hawk eyes to scope out elk or deer. (TO BE CONTINUED…)