Madhusudan Katti who is a Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Ecology in Fresno in response to the video below writes, “Yosemite National Park is an enduring symbol of the American “wilderness.” But suggests that most of us visiting such wilderness retreats edit our view of them to exclude all the visitors. He challenges us to go back and look at images we have taken ourselves of wilderness trips. How much have we edited the experience to exclude our fellow tourists? It’s an interesting observation – I know I’ve done it myself.

It’s fascinating how our idea of nature does not include people, isn’t it? The very meaning of the word excludes humans. And we live by that for we have come to see ourselves as the polluters and exploiters of nature. Its no coincidence in the era of green awareness that the popular series of Mad Men ended an idyllic picnic scene in a green park with the family dumping the garbage off the picnic blanket and leaving it without a second thought. Just like its no coincidence that we want to remember nature without other people polluting our captured images. We just don’t like ourselves much in association with nature – or maybe more accurately, we don’t like others so much.

And yet, we are nature. We are – at least in my understanding of things (it occurs to me that the more religious of you may not agree) just as much part of the universe as any other living thing in it. With all of our greed, thoughtlessness, arrogance and misery (and yeah, yeah, everything else glorious, come on, I’ve seen a block buster or two).

We have evolved to this. This is what humans do. We can hold onto the past, or attempt to live the way we think humans used to, but while it might provide meaning in our lives, then is no more valid or authentic than now is.

And before this starts to sound fatalistic, I believe the requirement for positive change is empathy. Empathy for ourselves. Let’s not deny our faults, but look at them and be gentle with them. And with that we can sometimes find empathy for others.

If nothing else, the next time you get down on yourself, or you rail against someone else, remember.

Anything that a human is capable of, we all have the potential for.

Happy New Year.

With the people, this is a really beautiful, thought provoking video:

People in Yosemite: A TimeLapse Study from Steven M. Bumgardner on Vimeo.