back to "Why?" metanode
Some people enjoy being in nature. Why? No, don't tell me how you love the sound of birds or whatever; I'm looking for different answer.

I believe that for every urge there is a reason, something that makes people with that urge more likely to reproduce than with not. You know what I'm talking about. So what's so cool about nature? If indoors living is such a new invention (coupla thousand years? What? Did they really spend that much time in caves, the cavemen? Were there even such thing as cavemen?), shouldn't the "indoors/outdoors" preference be neutral in human heritage, instead of clear "outdoors" preference some have?

Yes, I see that fresh air is good for you, some sun is good for you, but how should human's heritage know that if they never had lived indoors enough to make the difference in evolution?

Try walking through a forest in the autumn, then ask that question again.

The cool, clean air invigorates you; you are no longer breathing in chemical laden air that is probably oxygen and nitrogen deficient. You can smell the leaves, the mushrooms, the wet branches above you.

Maybe there will be a little mist hanging around, lending a magical appearance to your immediate surroundings. You can see the conkers lying all about you. You can watch the sycamore seeds falling in a helicopter dance. Far off there are tree stumps half-hidden by fog, looking like tortured witches put to death. You almost slip, but that brings you closer to the damp ferns that are turning a little brown. Several yards in front of you, squirrels scamper and hide; birds of all species are preparing for winter around you.

You can feel the life around you, pulsating and reaffirming your connection to nature. Maybe that's it; we are of nature, we somehow know that we are a part of an ecosystem, however much we try to remove ourselves. Returning to nature helps our subconscious to remember it's place in the grand scheme of things.

You can hear the wind in the trees, the drip of waters from their branches. Any artificial sounds are deadened by the life around you as though the forest wants to absorb the unfeeling technology. Birds cry to each other and you can sometimes hear small woodland creatures running through the undergrowth. Children are outside, playing and shouting to each other as well.

I would ask: Why do some people not enjoy being in nature? The very idea of someone hating nature is alien to me.

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