Dear Laretta, A deer was saved today
It was marvelous!
This is my third letter to Laretta. You can find the previous one here.
Ella saved a deer the other day from the Snatching Jaws of a runaway dog. It was lucky we heard it from the house, barking every time this big black-and-white dog with long fur was bringing it to the ground.
It wasn't a hunting dog, hunting dogs don't hunt for deer anyway. The neighbor here says he doesn't mind deer, since they only eat the grass. Not like boars, who make enormous holes in the field and the tractor makes big boom movements as it passes.
It looked much more like a collie, an enormous border collie. No, it wasn't a dog who knew how to hunt. Otherwise the poor deer would not have managed to escape. He kept letting it go and then catching it again and he kept on falling and falling in the sponge that are January fields.
When we heard it first - the bark I mean - we thought it was a dog. You know how deer can bark just like a dog.
But it was a dog and a deer and a lot of fear.
And we ran up the hill towards the noise. OK, Alex ran up the field. I walked with conviction. I’m lazy even in the face of endangered wildlife. Ella, who is usually such a scaredy cat, ran fastest and chased the big dog away, floating above the field with her greyhound look. The deer got away and ran across the lower field and right towards the house. It passed in front of Mister Sniffles and the Old Lady, stopped and said Hi. Or Thanks. Or “Is this a dog or an alien?“. Then disappeared towards the ruin with the fountain.
I just love living in the countryside:)
This is biophilia at its best. This close relationship with nature is so cool, I honestly wonder how I could live without it for so long and how I could live without it ever again. For I am a city girl myself, just like you. The first years in the wild I was trying to save all living beings, cuddling the brambles and sending the slugs from the garden on their way. Today, I weedwack the hell out of my fields with evident thirst! (The slugs I still don’t kill though..)
In most of the studies and books on biophilia, the talk is mostly - if not exclusively - on our visual relationship with plants. About how we have this innate inclination towards natural elements and how bringing more of that in our design makes us happier and healthier. Then they go on to argue if bringing videos of the Amazon in hospital wards is as good for the patients as actually giving them a window with a tree to look at. I would argue that there might be nuances here that have not been considered.
How about the buzzard that hunts in front of us when we have our coffee in the morning, reminding us of majesty and power? How about the silent chill the horses maintain whatever the weather, while we fret about any old thing? And the saving of a deer by Ella? I am definitely changed by the fact that I see the fox looking for breakfast while I have my own.
And while I don’t suppose everyone could or would live in such isolation as to have wild critters in view range, I am sure there is more we can do to brink more of this magic into our lives.
Maybe the architects who write only of plants biophilia all live in the city.
Tell me about the time you saw a badger.
Please write back,
Jo
PS There certainly are discussions about non-visual elements of biophilia. For the nerd in you, here is one of them.
PPS And the kids, Laretta! The kids who live in contact with wildlife, aren’t they more inclined to be good to nature and see the world as a whole of which we are but a part?
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