Newfound Beauty

“The human heart is the first home of democracy.” –Terry Tempest Williams

In the midst of the State of the Rockies conferences, the motivational speaker and writer I enjoyed most was Terry Tempest Williams. Not only did she find importance in conservational efforts, but also discovered pure beauty in Mother Nature. Through exploration of the human relationship to culture and nature, Williams had a remarkable wit and marvel that struck me at first as monotonous. However, as I reflected on her written work as well as her speech, she instilled in me a newfound beauty and love for nature.

Throughout her articles “Groundtruthing” and “Engagement”, Williams possesses an attitude toward nature that is both problematic and uniquely significant. While she stresses that humans’ relationship to nature is definitive, she also begs the question of what we find important in our lives. As she describes certain regions of the Mid-western plains of the United States, she recognizes the fact that everybody, authors and citizens alike, establish not only a relationship with the land, but a sort of intimate connection in which we can better appreciate the environment in which we live.

For this reason, what we make of our relationship is completely up to us. Since nobody has the right to define what is "good" and what is "bad", Williams' method for finding beauty in the physical world and nothing else is essential to everyday people. 

Furthermore, political law should be relative to this relationship. How we legislate the land is highly problematic, and therefore will always be argumentative. However, with globalization on the rise, the largest concern with environmental practice is the enforcement of conventional limitations and general morality that will extract from  "Antiglobalization is not a slogan, it is a rigorous reconfiguration of democracy that places power and creativity back into the hands of villagers and townspeople, providing them with as many choice as possible.

Because of her wonderful achievements, Williams is the quintessential environmentalist as she questions where democracy comes from. Similarly, it's the one source that ought to control our own individual action among plants, animals, and other individuals. Through Williams, one can see honesty through our hearts; the truest source of purity.