(a)

On that day, we sat down for a drink with Mr. Mayor and chatted casually about the development of local forestry.

It turned out that Mr. Mayor majored in forestry at university, and he was very knowledgeable in this area.

"Perhaps, for many people these days, sitting in a luxurious office and dictating to their subordinates makes them feel safer and more valuable, but for me, I prefer to go back to the town and walk through the golden crunchy grass every day, and feel the autumn colors in every aspect of life." ”

"Life in the big city tends to make people forget their roots, that they are just one of the many members of nature," he said. ”

"But in fact, we are not far from the era when people and nature live in harmony. Just 100 years ago, what used to be a big city was just a small town like Winter Lake. The land there is still green mountains and clear waters, clean air, four distinct seasons, rich ecosystems in ponds, small fish in streams, and ploughing cattle ruminating and walking slowly in the streets. The wings of the scarab shimmer with the sheen of the sun and the moon among the large trees in the residential area. ”

"Even when we were studying, the first floor of the dormitory was still dirty, there were ants and crickets living in the same room with us, in front of the dormitory building in spring and summer, watermelon seedlings and dandelions were sprouting everywhere, and in the yard of the school, we could also see hens and flocks of chicks foraging in the grass."

"I remember looking at the top of the school building and seeing the fields not far away," he said. The prickly wheat mangs of the dry finch wheat are very similar to covering the autumn foothills with a yellow blanket. It burns as easily as dry cotton wool, and the residents of the neighborhood need to be very careful not to start a fire in the field. ”

With a look of remembrance, he said yearningly: "It was really a poetic and beautiful day." It's a pity that this beautiful life is gradually leaving us. ”

(b)

Mr. Mayor said that the pace of modern life is getting faster and faster, and people have become unnecessarily hurried and hurried, and this futile efficiency and busyness not only make people physically and mentally exhausted, but also greatly accelerate the consumption and waste of natural resources.

In a forest, a tree can survive as long as it takes to fully transform into soil after it falls.

If the whole society knew how to live at this rate, then there would be no shortage of timber resources and no extinction of forests; The stream is still clear, and the salmon keep coming back to spawn.

"But people are becoming less and less patient and less kind." He sighed.

"Today, we can still live under the shelter of ancient trees every day, and there is a good chance that our children and grandchildren will have to build houses out of gravel from the riverbed in the future," he said, pointing to the surrounding forest. At that time, the old forest will also be truly gone. ”

He cites a number of facts that prove that this is not an overly pessimistic view:

For example, during the Stone Age, there were about 500 million acres of forests in the entire Mediterranean basin. Today, all but four thousand acres of high-altitude areas have survived, and all that remains is a grassy slope.

With the development of agriculture, China's lowland broad-leaved forests began to gradually disappear, and most of them ceased to exist about 3,500 years ago (in the fourth century BC, the Chinese philosopher Mencius discussed the dangers of large-scale deforestation).

Japan's forest landscape has also changed over the centuries of continuous deforestation. Today, Japan's sawmills have been reduced to only about eight inches of thick logs. Pristine deciduous broad-leaved forests can only be found in the most remote mountains. The precious scented cypress tree (Japanese cypress) is an essential material for the construction of shrines and temples. In Japan, such trees are now scarce, so cypresses of the size suitable for the restoration of traditional buildings must be imported from the West Coast of the United States.

(c)

Mr. Yichen said with deep empathy that this is indeed the case.

He said that in Japan, the ancient indigenous Ainu people, like the Indian people in North America, also have a great respect for nature.

They believed that the power of the gods was hidden under the masks of all living beings or behind armor.

Ainu houses are generally built in valleys. There is a fire pit in the middle of the low house.

In the early morning, the sun shines through the east gate of the house on the fire, and it is believed that it is the sun goddess visiting her sister Vulcan.

The Ainu rule was that no one was allowed to cross over the fire at this time, so as not to interfere with the intimate meeting of their sisters.

Mr. Yichen said that the reason why a certain area of forest is still preserved in Japan today is due to the Shinto religion that has been passed down from the aboriginal era.

Shinto, which means the path to the gods.

Since the time of the aboriginal villages, large and small shrines have been scattered throughout Japan.

The largest center of divine power is Mt. Fuji in Japan, and the name Fuji is the name of the goddess of the fire pond.

Mt. Fuji is the largest Shinto shrine in Japan, stretching from the wooded terrain below the slopes to the snow-capped summit.

The land of these shrines is sacrosanct. Even if it is a modern city construction, it cannot be violated.

As a result, you can see the many towering trees surrounding the large and small shrines in the city, and the foothills of Mt. Fuji, which are full of wildflowers.

Modern Japan, under the influence of indigenous traditions and the spirit of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in China, places great emphasis on the protection of sacred relics.

Mr. Yichen quoted a famous quote from the Japanese philosopher and founder of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism in Japan, Zen Master Dogen: "Who said that the mind is only thoughts, opinions, ideas, and ideas? The mind refers to trees, fences, bricks, and grass. ”

(iv)

Mr. Mayor and Mr. Yichen became more and more speculative on this topic.

They share the belief that nature is not only an indispensable support for the survival of the human body, but also an indispensable environment for the health of the human soul.

If we are to protect the physical and mental health of the human race and the reproduction of the race, we must protect the normal functioning of nature in the same way that we protect our own external body and soul.

Listening to their eloquent conversations, I couldn't help but think of the time when I studied etymology in class.

At that time, the teacher told us that the word "nature" comes from the Latin word "process of formation". On the basis of this vocabulary, many new words have been formed: country, nation, native, hometown, family, pregnant, born, born......

Language is a projection of human instinct.

We instinctively know in the depths of our consciousness that everything in our body and mind is intimate, inseparable, and closely related to nature.

Whether modern people remember this or not, whether they recognise it or not, admit it or not, this is the truth of the facts.