“Quality of life isn’t measured only by what we gain, but also by what we trade for it.”
-Richard Louv “Last Child in the Woods”
I’m reading Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods” and simply adoring it. It’s spurred so many thoughts and desires within me. One of the things it has helped me appreciate is the richness of my childhood. From time to time Tom will joke that my childhood seems pretty deprived of joy. I rarely talk about the freedom, creativity, confidence and joy that I gained frolicking alone or with my cohort Brigette around our acre property and surrounding fields. We spent hours creating, building, imagining, working, discovering. I guess I rarely talk about it, because I didn’t realize that such a childhood was and is so rare now a days. My parents gave me something priceless- siblings and access to undeveloped land. There are SO many things I want to talk about from the 70 pages I’ve read thus far. . . but it will have to wait. But least I forget I’m going to list the topics here:
-“All fashion is urban.” (p 20)
-The possibility for a childhood like mine is nearly impossible now a days. The new family that bought our family home will not have the same opportunities- because houses are being built in those surrounding fields.
-Being in nature utilizes all the senses at once.
-Society and government have created a country where the free roaming childhood of our parents is no longer possible. (“No trespassing” signs on the hills above my parent’s home. “You’ll get shot if you go into that field.” Being outdoors is dangerous- indoors is safe. Japanese child photographer who had to change her niche because there were no children on the streets anymore.)
Emphasis on the brain and not the hand. Neurologist Frank Wilson at Stanford “We’ve been sold a bill of goods about how valuable computer-based experience is. We are creatures identified by what we do with our hands.” “Because students have so little real-world experience; they’ve never siphoned anything, never fixed a car, never worked on a fuel pump. . .” “it’s increasingly difficult to teach [medical students] how the heart works as a pump. “These young people are smart, they grew up with computers, they were supposed to be superior – but now we know that something’s missing.”
“Superficially, the world has become small and known. Poor little globe of earth, the tourists trot round you as easily as they trot round the Bois or round Central Park. There is no mystery left, we’ve been there, we’ve seen it, we know all about it. We’ve done the globe and the globe is done. This is quite true superficially. On the superficies, horizontally, we’ve been everywhere and done everything, we know all about it. Yet the more we know, superficially, the less we penetrate, vertically. We are mistaken. The know-it-all state of mind is just the result of being outside the mucous-paper wrapping of civilization. Underneath is everything we don’t know and are afraid of knowing.” -D. H. Lawrence
2 responses to “"Last Child in the Woods."”
Hi Kjirsti! I have read this book and very much enjoyed it as well. One of my take home points was that nature provides “loose parts.” I will let you read it, but the idea definitely influences what I buy my children.
Yes! It’s a good balance to the controlled nature of interior spaces. This book has changed my thinking on my landscaping. I want to make sure that my yard is wild enough that there are plenty of “loose parts” and that things aren’t so manicured that I start to feel like everything has to have its place. It’s something I love about Seattle, nature is so powerful here that you can’t contain it nicely, so most people give up- the wild nature of the place lends itself to increased creativity. Perhaps that’s why so many writers and artists live in Seattle, or maybe it has more to do with the fact that the rain keeps them indoors doing their jobs! wink!