We have our Tang Soo Do World Championships in North Carolina every other year, and I usually drive rather than fly for ease of transporting weapons and equipment. One thing that’s an added bonus is driving through the beautiful forests and mountains of West Virginia, with scenic views along the highway for hours on end. I live in a suburb of Chicago, so honestly sometimes I forget how magical it is when you’re completely immersed in nature.
One thing that always sticks out in my head is when we drive through the mountains, you can see these long imprinted lines running from the top to bottom of the hills that the highway was carved into. When I was little I thought those lines were for rain water to run down for animals or plants to drink, but later I realized it was from humans drilling through the mountain to create a path for the highway.
I’m not saying this wasn’t necessary, as many people use the highways, but it made me think. We think that us humans are in charge of nature and can do anything we want to it; oftentimes we take for granted the earth we are inhabitants of. The truth is, nature was here long before humans, and it will be around long after. Nature is actually in charge of us; the more trees we cut down and use without planting more, equals the less oxygen we are getting in our ozone. With the climbing climate temperatures, forest fires are more common destroying resources we need. The more we use fossil fuels excessively in our daily lives, the more depleted the world gets of them and there’s no way to get them back. When a pandemic happens, nature doesn’t care who you are, every single person is at risk of getting affected.
It is our job as humans, to respect the world we live in and do our best to try and take baby steps to saving nature. We owe it to ourselves, future generations, and just the Earth in general. Remember, nature has given everything to us, we need to make an effort to give back and care for the earth as it does for us.
