Someone asked me the other day whether I thought there were starting to be more or less people practicing "green" eco-friendly gardening. Skeptics are starting to say that the whole "green movement" is on the wane. I don't think that is true. Why? Because I believe. I believe that people are starting to realize the impact of their actions. I believe that more and more people want to do their part to help create a better world for future generations. And I definitely believe in Nature Nerds.
What are nature nerds? Nature nerds are people that are so in awe of the natural world around them, that they work to protect it.
So, with apologies to newsman Francis Pharcellus Church, who created this wonderful reply to Miss Virginia O’Hanlon when she wrote a letter to the New York Sun questioning the existence of Santa Claus, I give you:
Yes Virginia, I am a Nature Nerd
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there are no Nature Nerds.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; are there Nature Nerds?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there are Nature Nerds.They exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Nature Nerds. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Nature Nerds! …… The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. ……. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Nature Nerds! Thank God! they live, and they live forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, they will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”
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"Some of my little friends say there are no Nature Nerds.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; are there Nature Nerds?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there are Nature Nerds.They exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Nature Nerds. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Nature Nerds! …… The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. ……. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Nature Nerds! Thank God! they live, and they live forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, they will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”
2 comments:
I love the idea of a nature nerd. I am so totally there!
N A T U R E N E R D S R O C K ! i grew up with 2 good friends, one of which was nature nerd. I am way thankful I met him when I did, as he opened my eyes to the whole planet...otherwise hard to see when you're 6 or 7. We have a green site of our own, come visit our blog! Right now we're talking about worm composting in the dining room on The WormFarm Chronicles -- http://www.gottabgreen.com/blog.html
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