Recently, my father wrote a book. It is a great dive into questioning how we think about the Gospel. “The Gospel is the story we tell about Jesus and the Good News” is one of the main arguments in his book. Stories change overtime, depending on the teller and listeners. I do not have the authority to speak on the Gospel, but I have studied another topic that is just a story we tell; nature.
When I say nature is a story, I don’t mean that the trees don’t exist. I don’t mean that the mountains formed over millions of years because we needed a good backdrop for a picture. What I mean is the way we describe our relationship to the rest of the living organisms on this planet reflects our values and mindsets as a society.
This isn’t a new idea, and I first heard some of these ideas when I was in school. But this isn’t going to be an academic deep dive. I want to tell you exactly what I said to my co worker when we entered this room earlier this month.
I was instantly fascinated by this mural. There is so much to unpack with how the information is being presented, the story it is telling. I am going to get into some pretty harsh criticisms of this piece of art, but I do not directly blame the artist. At the time, they could have been progressive due to actually saying that there were people on this land for thousands of years. My criticisms are towards the stories we tell that we never question in America.
First, let’s talk timeline. Below is a basic timeline that I made using the dates on the mural. I understand that pieces of art do not need to be 100% accurate, but this is ridiculous. Take a look up at the mural. About half, maybe a little less, is pre-1761. Then from 1761-1970 is the other, just a bit over half. If we stretched it out to an actual timeline…
…it is hard to even see all the details between the events after 1761. Why is that the halfway point? For thousands, and thousands, and thousands of years people lived here. They fought, laughed, hunted, and shared stories here. Without even getting into the content of what is painted, by saying “1761 is the halfway point in the story of this place” you are placing 14,761 years as equivalent to 209 years.
But not all those years had people. So let’s dive into the retreat of the glaciers. Here in Western PA after the last major ice age the glaciers retreated and for thousands of years we had plains.
If we take a closer look, we can see that a mammoth and her cub are being hunted by a pack of wolves. An eagle, another predator, is circling above. What I interpret from this is
“Nature is harsh. Animals hunt and kill one another.”
Then came the ‘paleo-indians’ and the forests. I am going to keep referring to the people who lived here for thousands of years as Indians. I understand the origin of that word did not correctly describe the multitude of stories of the people here, but there is an ongoing discussion that “Native American” is an even more white-washed term. What does the artist say about the Indians?
There are no buildings. No ceremonies. No communities. Just two hunters, one with a spear and one with a bow and arrow, killing. There is progression in the clothes they are wearing, which is a nice touch, but again, what is the story of nature here?
“Nature is still harsh, but humans are top of the food chain. They must kill, but do not make a major mark on the land. Just as the deer only leaves prints.”
Ok, we are at the “half-way” point of 1761. European settlers are here. First, the forests are gone. There is mass destruction not seen on this scale since the glaciers. These people built homes and are using tools to ultimately shape the land to their needs. This is even the first evidence of fire in this mural, which we will get back to later.
You can even see a progression in how people dress. While there were only two Indians shown (both appearing masculine and hunting), this single shot shows four people, from different eras, performing different tasks. The story told here is
“When the Europeans came, there were many of them. They built houses and changed the land permanently. They even burned down the forest to make way for their farms. They are not a part of nature, they are moving it out of the way.”
The destruction continues with the rise of industrialization. Both in the distance and close you can see smoke rising, indicating that the air is becoming dirty.
This is actually the part I appreciate the most. It shows the scale of the destruction we can have on the land. The story here is
“Our power is massive, and we can destroy nature with these tools.”
This is the part that made me want to write this. Do you see any predators? The only death happening is to the fish on the left. But there are no wolves, no owls, no weapons, no widescale destruction. But there is smoke. WAY back on the right there is some smoke coming from a factory. What this panel is saying is
“Nature must be preserved as a separate place from us. We will then go to the nature to relax, where nothing bad will happen.”
After explaining what I saw to my coworker, he said “wow, that’s a lot of stuff.” We normally don’t question things like “what is nature” and just love to go boating when the weather is nice. But if we keep thinking that nature is a separate place from us, we will not be able to save this planet.
The oceans are on fire. Our lungs are full of coal dust. We need to start acting like we are just one part of nature, not above it, no separate from it. If we keep telling ourselves nice stories where nothing ever goes wrong in ‘nature,’ we won’t have a planet to live on anymore.