TED Conversations

gale kooser

TEDCRED 20+

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Are we losing the ability to marvel at the natural beauty that surrounds us?

Our world is so filled with the newest tech. toys, cells phones surgically attached to our hips, commercials & governments telling us what to eat,wear, act & think, hurrying here & there to meet dead lines or appointments, and pills of all sorts to slim us down, improve sex life, & extent life, that I wonder how many of us take the time to just sit back & enjoy the view?

To just find a spot, with a nice view of nature, plop down our butt, shut our mouths, open our eyes & ears, and just let out brains drift. What wonders we could find within us, just by letting our minds float on the breeze & mingle with the clouds. To become one again with the child within all of us, to just "Be".

They say that all the answers to all our questions are already within us, it's just a case of letting them come to the surface. So what better way to do that then to just let our minds drift away from every day "stuff"? To once again enjoy the beauty that surrounds us all.

Are we losing that ability with so many advancements in our hurried lives?

Topics: society technology
+2
Share:
progress indicator
  • thumb

    Gail . 50+

    • 0
    Oct 17 2012: Your question reminds me of something I read about a teacher who was with her school group in a field trip to the zoo. They were at the zebra's habitat when she heard one of her young charges ask another child, "It isn't very realistic, is it"
  • thumb

    Scott Armstrong 50+

    • 0
    Oct 17 2012: no.

    not everyone has jumped onto the gadget bandwagon ;)
  • thumb

    W. Ying 10+

    • 0
    Oct 16 2012: I think:
    All the new tech products we have today give us INVALID HAPPINESS mostly.
    They injure us more than benefit.
    Reason: --- our instincts can not cope with these new tech products VALUIDLY.

  • gale kooser 20+

    • 0
    Oct 16 2012: Sometimes that is all that some people can walk in.
  • thumb

    Ken brown 30+

    • 0
    Oct 16 2012: IMO Roses are a man made product of the manipulation of nature so to enjoy the gift of nature one must fully understand that nature is not manipulated or is it represented in anyones garden.

    A walk in a field of wild flowers will bring the sound of the pollinators and the wind.The smell of the green heart of the forest, the bleakness of an ancient larva flow and the majesty of the storm and the power of water.

    A walk in a human made park isn't exactly nature rather a bigger version of a garden without vegetables.
  • thumb

    Mark Kurtz 20+

    • 0
    Oct 16 2012: We might be losing desire to "smell the roses". We think we are too busy to take time to think deeply, enjoy nature, to "be" as you say. I agree with Fritzie, we don't lose the ability to enjoy; we just think we don't have the time to spare. This busyness could rob us of the greater benefits of living.

    • gale kooser 20+

      • 0
      Oct 16 2012: I agree Mark! I may not have stated my question correctly but to lose ones self in the natural beauty that surrounds us is to open our minds to what could be & or should be.
  • thumb

    Madhavi Gavini

    • 0
    Oct 16 2012: We are not losing the ability to smell the roses..but we make a choice not to make it a priority :-)

    • gale kooser 20+

      • 0
      Oct 16 2012: At this point we can still smell the roses but when the roses disappear, all we will be left with is a memory & a bottled smell.
      I wonder how much better off we would be if we did make it a priority?
      • thumb

        edward long 100+

        • 0
        Oct 16 2012: Ms. Kooser, are you keeping something from us about roses disappearing?
  • thumb

    Fritzie Reisner 100+

    • 0
    Host
    Oct 16 2012: I agree with Edward that I don't think we lose our ability to marvel at the beauty that surrounds us. I do think many people's lives give them less time to enjoy the outdoors, and many people live in very built up urban settings without significant access to natural beauty.

    I absolutely do not believe that "the answers to all our questions are already within us." I believe that those who say that are mistaken and that we all have a lot to learn from engaging with people and experiences from which we can learn what is not already inside us.

    • gale kooser 20+

      • 0
      Oct 16 2012: I didn't say, I believed all answers were inside each of us, I simply stated:"They say..."
      You don't have to live near a forest, park, etc. to enjoy natural beauty. A potted plant can & does usually, fill that gap.
      But we do lose our abilities. Our ancestors had much better survival skills then we do today as a species.
      • thumb

        edward long 100+

        • 0
        Oct 16 2012: Ooops! Survival skills are not the same as the ability to enjoy Nature. If you meant to ask if we are losing our survival skills I wish to change my answer to "YES".
      • thumb

        Fritzie Reisner 100+

        • 0
        Host
        Oct 16 2012: I agree with Edward that if you meant not "our ability to marvel at the natural beauty around us" but rather our Survival skills, yes, I believe we are losing our survival skills.
  • thumb

    edward long 100+

    • +1
    Oct 16 2012: The two labels you will need to categorize and identify respondents to your question are: Outside Person and Inside Person. There are plenty of both and everyone is predominantly one or the other, not many folks are 50/50. My guess is that there are more I.P.'s in first world countries and more O.P.'s in developing nations. It seems like most tecno-toys are for inside. I don't think we can lose the ability to enjoy and appreciate the Earth, but we can fail to exercise the ability. Thank you!

    • gale kooser 20+

      • 0
      Oct 16 2012: When we don't use certain abilities, we tend to lose those abilities. Or at least they are diminished.
      Yes! As you put it: The developed nations are tending more to I.P.'s.
      Many great inventions were created from those who "watched nature", so to speak.
      • thumb

        edward long 100+

        • 0
        Oct 16 2012: Diminished and atrophied? Yes, but lost? No. Is it possible that techno-toys are the antithesis of Nature? George Washington Carver said: QUOTE: "I love to think of Nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we only will tune in."
Showing all 17 comments