English 5599 - Creative Writing For Teachers
Is There Art In the Natural World
"My neighbor and I jog in the mornings together. Several weeks ago he told me a robin had built a nest in one of his flowerpots on his porch. I walked over to take a look, and there it was. A little nest. But where was the robin?
A couple of days later, he told me to come and check out what the robin had added to the nest. I walked over to his porch once again and saw four tiny bluish eggs. Again, the adult robin was nowhere to be found.
A week later, I went back to the nest on my own accord. I was curious as to what I might find there. As I lifted to pot to take a look, the mother robin flew from the pot. It scared me to death. Once I regained my composure, I looked into the pot. Four featherless birds lay in the nest with their eyes closed.
In that moment, the thought came over me that I had the power of life and death in my grasp. I would not have even considered harming those helpless little creatures. But I knew I could destroy the life I held in my hand.
Today, the robins are gone. They've left the nest and are busy doing whatever it is that robins do. The nest remains."
This journal prompt explores the power of humankind over the natural world. Genesis 1 in the Bible says, "Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." With rule comes great responsibility.
But there is another message in this prompt, albeit a tacit one, that speaks of the assigned exploration. I am struck my how nature itself is creative. The robin's structure, made from twigs, grass, and trash, is the very thing it needed to survive. The nest was a necessity for it to bring forth more life.
I've never considered before the beauty of a bird's nest. I was told as a child that birds carry funky diseases. That I should leave the nest alone because the mother bird, if threatened, will kill her chicks. I don't know how much of that is true. But if you've ever looked closely at a bird's nest, you will see great ingenuity at work. The nest I found in my neighbor's flowerpot was beautiful. The nest was art.
When I look at nature, I am more aware of its inclination to create with the resources it has. I think I might go as far as to say that even natural elements in nature create art. Take the wind. The wind forms wonderful structures in the desert using the sand. Take fire. Fire restructures the look of a forest. To me, this isn't great art, but the power of creativity is there nonetheless. Take water. Look what it did over the years at Palo Duro Canyon. Take earth. The pressure of gravity and the temperature changes below the surface create interesting formations.