Order vs. Chaos (Perceived)

I was recently riding my bike around the neighborhood, and while waiting at a stoplight, I noticed the sign for the neighborhood I was in - Valley Ridge. What the hell does that mean? That’s like naming a development Ocean Land or Prairie Woods.

I rode past developments that sounded like a mad-lib using the writings of Aldo Leopold, names like Hawk’s Landing, Cherry Hill and Skyview Meadows. The names conjured the beauty of nature, but the neighborhoods are named in memoriam. An oak ridge once existed here, but take comfort knowing the name will live on. Cherry trees may have once grown at Cherry Hill, but not anymore. This is called progress.

It’s almost like we want to live in a wild-sounding development, but loathe the wildness the name evokes. We keep the name, but take the heart out of the words.

Why not name the development for what it is? Suburban Monotony. The houses look the same, the mailboxes are the same, and the lifestyle is the same. The nature we destroyed to have lawns to mow was anything but monotonous. The landscape that evolved over thousands of years was shaped by soil conditions, fire and climate, not a profit-focused developer.

I’ve been thinking about our uneasiness with things out of our control. We want to hold dominion over every part of our lives; any element of chance can throw our balance off and put our plans into disarray.

We pretend we live with nature, but our yards are fenced in, windows shut and locked when the outside world gets just a hair from perfect. Our lives depict fear of the natural world. We drive down the road with the windows up because wind is noisy. What’s so scary about fresh air? If temperatures bump above the mid-70’s, the drone I hear while riding my bike is not of bees or birds flapping their wings, it’s of AC units keeping our houses to a more palatable setting. We’re more “comfortable” when we have power over our surroundings.

We want the beauty of nature, but without the unpredictability, the mystery, the danger of wilderness. When someone converts their yard to prairie forbs and grasses, neighbors complain that the yard is unkempt and unsightly, but if you take those flowers and plant them in a garden, they are beautiful. Maybe it’s the sight of grass not mowed that rankles homeowners. Maybe it’s that we crave holding power over everything. Anything uncontrolled is a threat to our orderly lives.

We pave over prairies, force a stream into a culvert and cut down trees to put in a few more houses. The problem with this destruction is that studies have shown that access to green space in cities has a direct correlation to quality of life. More green space means a higher quality of life.

Fluorescent light bulbs lack red light, which has been proven to increase creativity. What source provides ample portions of the red spectrum? Sunlight, of course. It’s almost like we are trying to regress. Our zest to improve productivity and lower costs by packing workers into drab, lifeless cubes and windowless offices may actually be having the opposite effect. The natural world provides stimulation that keeps our minds fresh and lively, but we are actively taking away this stimulation. We are dumbing ourselves.

A recent study showed that we are our most creative and productive at work when pictures of the African Savannah – our ancestral home - surround us.  Humans evolved in the wild, and our departure to urban surroundings has thrown off our inner equilibrium.

Obviously, we all can’t get back to our roots and live in the woods, but we can stop freaking out about the randomness of nature and learn to live with it, to enjoy it. It’s a beautiful world out there and it is best observed without a pane of glass in the way. We need to embrace Mother Nature and not be afraid of her mysteries. Let the chaos of nature into your life by opening your windows, going for a hike or just getting outside and seeing the wildness. You may discover it’s just what you needed. Progress.