Technology and Nature

 I definitely am not a techie. I struggle with the tv remote, need help starting the Xbox, cannot get our DVD to work, and can’t get the radio in our camper to play from the speakers where I want them.  My car is equipped with lots of technical stuff and voice commands that go unused.  Technology is always changing my world.

But no matter how advanced our technology gets nature and animals continue doing the same things they always have.

Maybe I long for a life like theirs. If I were a squirrel, I would go about my day, running here and there, chasing other squirrels around and around the tree trunk, up and down its massive base, then do high wire acts on the those skinny branches near the top, never falling or losing my footage. I could walk across the telephone wires and look down on the world, no one ever bothering me. Do I know that what I am walking on is a wire and is used to bring voices back and forth from one place to another and do I care? Heck no! I just know it gets me from A to Z quicker. In between playing, I’ll stockpile enough food to get me through the winter and make a mental note of where I hid them.

If I were a flower I would push my little green stem through the ground at the first sight of spring then expand my body into that beautiful plant you humans look forward to each year. As you watch and wait, I would produce a bud, then slowly open it to all its grandeur and royal color and move back and forth in the breeze as you marvel at my beauty.  My pretty little face will you make you smile because you know spring is finally here. You will cultivate the soil for me and I will produce seeds that I drop into that rich earth or for you to plant so my next generation can return and reignite your happiness.
 

I could be a bear wandering in the woods for three seasons. I could catch fish in the stream, climb the rocks of mountains, and steal food from your picnics like Yogi. When it gets cold, I will just hunker down for a season and sleep. No stress, no lights in my eyes, no digital alarm clock. My body will awaken naturally in the spring feeling refreshed and I will wander out, rub the sleep from my eyes and let out a low growl to test my lungs. I will breathe in the fresh spring air and enjoy the soft grass coming up under my feet. I will gather my cubs and head out for food.

As a barred owl, my large black eyes would take in everything below me unnoticed.  When I get hungry I’ll swoop down and grab my prey, carry it back up to a high branch and enjoy. When I’m done, I’ll just spit out what’s left, no dishwasher needed for clean up for me.

I could be a song bird, my head tilted upward, my feathers close to my body as I belt out my tune, my tiny feet clinging to the branch beneath me. After I finish my melody without the use of speakers or IPods or satellite radio, I would fly off, not making a sound, through the trees, never once bumping into them.

I could be a monarch butterfly who knows when and how to get to New Mexico for the winter without the use of a GPS.

I might choose to be an animal living in the forest and would know naturally to leave an area because of impending weather coming without the use of radar.

How is that these creatures can do these things naturally and we feel naked if we leave our cell phone at home? Maybe we are not the smartest things on earth like we think.

Now where did I put that mouse?