Allison Burbach (11/8): Turtle Island- The Wild Mushroom

On page 46 of Turtle Island by Gary Snyder I found my favorite poem. The Wild Mushroom chronicles a mushroom hunting expedition by two people. I especially liked the lines: 

“We set out in the forest

To seek the wild mushroom

In shapes diverse and colorful

Shining through the woodland gloom”


The imagery of bright mushrooms lighting up the forest is a perspective I had never considered. I learned a lot about fungi in my plant biology class last semester with Dr. Ruane. Up until that point, I had not learned much about fungi and their characteristics in other biology classes. There are endless applications of mushrooms in the food we eat and the medicine we develop, but you have to be careful because many species are poisonous look-alikes. This concept has always fascinated me in biology. Many species will adopt toxins to protect themselves, which is almost always connected to bright colors. For animals in the forest, bright colors are warning signals for toxicity, but for humans, we seek out color in nature for the beauty, not knowing what lies inside.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lucas Spelsberg (011/27): Climate Fiction

A new genre of literature has been emerging over the past decade known as Climate Fiction. Along with the formation of this genre, a debate on whether or not Cli-Fi is an appropriate way to inspire action among young adults has followed. One argument is that traditional ways of teaching students about climate change weren't very effective but with creative writing as a new pathway to science, it would become more accessible to students who are not typically interested. Other arguments claim that climate deniers will see fictional stories as proof that climate change is a farce , only being exaggerated for effect. I believe that teaching Climate Fiction in low-level schools may give young students an inaccurate or apocalyptic vision of their future and therefore make them feel hopeless as opposed to hopeful and encouraged to make changes. I believe that if we had started earlier to learn to love the land which provides us with so much this would not be an issue today. Much like th...
Read more

Lucas Spelsberg (10/19): Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey offers a unique perspective on the topic of development within our parks and monuments seeing as he was working in the west at the time of this increased "progress" and was able to cite many changes he had seen firsthand at the time of this writing. One of the main themes throughout many of his texts is a disdain for the presence of motorized vehicles within natural landscapes. More than most I have read regarding the increasing amount of pavement and windshield tourism at the time, Abbey was able to write about how the Park Service dealt with the monetary and political side of development. This insight seemed to lead him to believe that it should be the Park Service's job to pry the tourists out of their automobiles, out of their back-breaking upholstered mechanized wheelchairs, and onto their feet, onto the strange warmth and solidarity of Mother Earth even specifically stating in Industrial Tourism and National Parks that "This is the problem that th...
Read more

Lucas Spelsberg (11/04): Kimmerer’s People of Corn People of Light

In the section of Braiding Sweetgrass : People of Corn, People of Light , Kimmerer describes a creation myth originating from the Mayan people. In this myth, it is said that the gods attempted to use resources from the natural world to create humans. Not until the gods were able to create people from corn who were "wise enough to be grateful" did they end their attempts to create a perfect lifeform. Ultimately, they settled on the humans that were able to show appreciation and gratitude for the natural world. Most of the Native American creation myths that Kimmerer writes about have to do with expressing gratitude for the natural world and showing appreciation for the elements which created us. These creation myths highlight the necessity to be grateful for nature because it is the foundation of our lives. Thus creating a culture with the belief that the natural world is something that should be valued highly and not be taken for granted. This seems to be emphasized in Indige...
Read more