Improvement

What is it that makes us think we need to improve on everything around us? We're playing on the sandy river bank near the NCR trail. The girls, as always, have stakes out their "houses" and are fixing them up for their pretend game. Celee started leaning sticks up against the tree trunk that made up her house. When Gwyn asked her what she was doing, she answered, "I'm making it ... better." What could make this place better? This beautiful place just isn't "housy" enough. Later the girls found a small patch if Bonnie Bells growing in the sand. They all already know better than to pick them. But they were definitely doing something beside them so I asked what they were doing. They told me they were building up the sand around the bottom of the flowers so they wouldn't fall over. Do the flowers really need their "help?" The girls think so. Now I know that they are just playing and having fun. There is no paternalistic superiority complex being played out. I think it's just human nature. At least in the Western human mind. We want to improve the land. That was our excuse when we came here and took it. I find myself more of the Thoreau mindset. I look around and want everything to remain untouched. I cringe when the girls pick weeds to give me. It makes me profoundly sad to see litter anywhere. I know I need to get out and just "be" outside, and by outside I usually mean somewhere that I can not see a roof or hear a car. That may be why apartment life grates on me so much. I relish these days when the girls can come out to places like this and take their shoes off, play fairy houses, and just " be" outside.