Thursday, March 30, 2017

shinrin-yoku

went to an Urban Greening presentation, got a certificate from an Ohio EPA officer, got coffee and donuts
 
A professor from the northwest (U. Wash-Seattle) came and spoke. Yes, this is of value and good; but it is not smooth sailing in to-day's [and especially trump's] America. This is not Japan or Switzerland where there is a national ethic of cleanliness towards our environment. We live in a brutish, vulgar, vulture capitalism where immediate consumption is the programme. The old proverbs tell us that a grandfather plants a tree for his grandson, not for himself. This ethic is easy for an American Indian to understand, accept, and live; people who believe in stewardship of nature too. Dr. Wolf did give me another Japanese aesthetic to enjoy—shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), it is therapeutic in several ways to bathe yourself in a forest walk. 
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postscriptum: 18 June 2022. The Germans have the word, "Waldeinsamkeit" [alone in the forest(ness)].

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