Page 6 - Discover Summer 2023
P. 6
Editor’s Note
By Tim Ernandes
It's Only Natural
Some years ago, there was much ado about applying governmental solutions to all of life’s
a woman in North Dakota, who called a radio problems. I’m reminded of a line from an old
station to comment about deer crossing signs. television commercial from the 70’s, in which an
She complained that they were misplaced. In her imposing ersatz-authority figure intones, “It’s not
view, they were installed at the most inopportune NICE to fool Mother Nature”. In truth, it isn’t
locations, and seemed to result in more rather really possible. Man acts, and nature reacts. Man’s
than fewer deer collisions. attempts to “fool” Mother Nature are really only
stimuli to which nature reacts. Nature is what it is.
Her position was that the deer crossings should
be moved to areas where the deer could cross So, in between guffaws, we uneasily affirm
more safely, thus resulting, in her mind, in fewer to ourselves that deer really cannot read signs,
deer strikes, and a corresponding reduction in even if the message is pictorial rather than in
injuries and property damage. The audio of this text. Moreover, we reassure ourselves that we
call-in went viral on the internet, making this understand that the signs were intended to warn
woman an object of national ridicule. drivers, rather than to direct animals to an area
where it’s safe to cross. Nevertheless, how many
Listening to her speak, one gets the impression
times do we less obviously fall prey to the same
that this woman is of sound mind and at least
flawed conceptual thinking?
average intelligence. Yet her stance on this
particular issue evokes profound disbelief. How The failing usually occurs when we try to
could a seemingly rational human being possibly separate ourselves from nature. Human conceit
embrace the false concept that your average has a large portion of our society believing that
woodland creature pays attention to road signs, somehow we are immune from the concept of
much less has the intellectual capacity to discern natural tendencies, merely because we are human.
their messages? Our elevated sense of our power and ourselves
frequently leads us to foolhardiness of thought.
At the risk of sounding patently cliché, I
The Spanish-born American philosopher George
believe that society is to blame.
Santayana is most often quoted thusly:
My argument is that this woman has been
Those who cannot remember the past are
conditioned by society to become disconnected
condemned to repeat it.
from logic and analytical thought. This is the
result of the increasingly popular notion of Rarely have so few words carried so much
4 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SUMMER 2023
