Nature, Humanity & Technology. Three words. Three meanings. All of them are different. Yet, in my opinion, they still belong together. Some people believe, that humans are poison for our planet and their other inhabitants.
I am convinced: That’s is not the case! At least before the age of industrialism.
Back then, humanity was a positive contributor to the biodiversity and health of the ecosystems of our planet.
When there was a forest, that was plagued by parasites, the humans would burn it down, to create fertile ground so that a healthy forest could re-grow.
We were almost like shepherds, protecting and maintaining nature.
Sadly, this way of interacting and perceiving nature has been lost over the years in our western culture. But there is a silver lining:
Japan and its religion- the Shinto Buddhism. They see the natural world and the supernatural world as the same and not as something that is divided. So, an eagle might be a person you knew from a previous life, or even a rock, can be full of spiritual life and energy.
Therefore, they treat nature much more respectfully than other cultures, especially the western culture.
This belief system is called “animism” and is not unique to the Japanese culture. In fact, it is considered by many as the mother of all religions.
This gave me hope, that maybe humanity can find a way back to their routes while still being a technologically advanced civilization and that my ideas are not just an idealistic fantasy but real. Ultimately my rings are a symbiosis of technology (tools and rivets I used), humanity (craftsmanship) and nature (patina and shapes).
I want the people, to rethink our perception of nature and how we interact with it and appreciate the wonders and magic of nature more.
Humankind wasn’t always the black sheep, that we think of now, in terms of how we interact with nature and its resources. Over thousands of years, we lived in harmony with nature. Only in the course of the past two hundred years, there developed a detachment from nature in especially our western culture. This detachment from nature on a both physical and mental level, has led to a wide gap from our origins. While it is important to look forward, I think it is equally important to look where we come from. A detachment of our routes has led to spiritual poverty and an increase of stress, depression and an unhealthy way of life. A not human way of life. While our knowledge about our abilities and possibilities has increased drastically, our bodies are still in the evolutional phase of the humans of the stone age. Our desires are still the same. We need connectedness to nature. It only has positive effects. Yet we still strive to master nature and make it obedient. But we cannot and we should not.
We have to realize that we are depending on nature for our physical and mental wellbeing.
We have to remember that going one way only often leads to ending up at a roadblock.
We have to discover the possibilities if we learn to let nature come closer to us again and live in co-existence and harmony.
We have to re-learn the Importance of nature in a sensible, emotional and responsible way.