“Touch Grass” is a phrase used over and over to suggest we need to get out from in front of our screens, get outside into nature and experience the real world, but is it just going out of doors?
The benefits of being outside are undeniable, from the ability for natural sunlight to help regulate our circadian rhythms to the ability for natural settings to calm and center us, but to really “touch grass” it takes more than just being, touching grass involves active engagement with the natural world. Something that is often missed in the trite “touch grass” but without this engagement we are missing out on the real benefits of this practice.
Nature is the chaotic and uncontrolled aspect of reality. Sometimes this can cause pleasant encounters with unexpected wildlife, sometimes it can cause massive damage to homes and vehicles when storms come through, dropping hail, starting fires or blowing over whole buildings with gale force winds. Nature can be beautiful butterflies pollinating flowers or disease spreading ticks ruining a perfectly nice hike. In our day to day lives we often live as though we are in complete control of some things we engage with, and have virtually no control over other things. We move from one climate controlled box to another, engaging with generally predictable systems. We know that if we go to the gas station, grab an energy drink and let the clerk scan it and swipe our card then we can walk out of that store a few dollars poorer but with a shiny new can and a shot of caffeine. Most people could pretty accurately predict step by step how their day will go. Specifics will vary, but the general course and how we respond to events will be the same, day in and day out. This is a pretty dull way to live and it risks leading to a complacent life of compliance and lack of agency.
Going outdoors exposes us to the unpredictable. The more wild, the less predictable. You go to a park and you may or may not encounter a squirrel, or a sparrow, but generally you still know what to expect, though not as consistently as the gas station. You get out of town, into the true wild and who knows what can happen. One day you may see a deer, the next a turkey, the next a mountain lion. The range of risk also increases, you may see a butterfly gently pollinating flowers, or you might encounter a tick that gives you lyme disease requiring immediate treatment or else be subject to chronic illness. This is the unpredictable world that our ancestors had to engage with in order to create the predictable world we live in today, and it is the world of adventure.
Every trade, to varying degrees, engages with this wild world to try and control the forces of nature. The farmer is the easiest example, having to understand intimately the weather, soil and the crops or livestock they tend to in order to increase their odds of successfully extracting the desired result. But even the woodworker must wrestle with the natural properties of various woods, and geometries of cutting tools in order to take the trunk of a tree and turn it into a chair or a spoon. Welders and metal workers need to have an intuitive understanding of metallurgy, thermodynamics and electricity. Each trade focuses on a specific area of the world and attempts to develop an understanding deep enough that it can be molded into a desired shape. This is the fundamental act of civilization, this is the most creative act.
Creative acts feed our soul, I think they have the potential to be even more meaningful if they are also useful creative acts. Touching Grass is more than just stepping outside, it is actually grasping a part of the real world, a wild and uncivilized aspect of reality, wrestling with it until you can master it and be creative with the chaos inherent in it. Trades are the practical ways of doing this, and often come with communities of like minded individuals who can share their wisdom and fellowship and you walk the same road they have. You don’t have to go out and change careers. But pick up a hobby that gives you the opportunity to engage with the world beneath the systems that govern our daily lives, hobbies that force you to develop your own systems to wrestle with your own little corner of the cosmos and practice it enough that you can truly play and be creative with it. Prove to yourself and to the world that you are more than a bit player in the systems developed and controlled by others. Prove that you can grasp at the world beneath the systems and make something of your own out of it, and maybe you’ll find that better than the predictable world you lived in and maybe by making the world a little less predictable, you can make it a little bit better.
Chief Philosophical Correspondent
Chief Philosophical Correspondent