Nature Deficit Disorder

J ran in the yard, garden and beyond with other children when she started to walk - but that was in India. The domestic help and her sizeable family lived in the outhouse of our rambling old bungalow, all of the neighbors had been around for decades. There were enough eyes on her all the time. No one was worried about her getting the Nature Deficit Disorder

Ms W and Ms K keep a vigilant eye on all the children at J's daycare. There is a security system in place and the tot-lot is covered with mulch as opposed to natural greenery. J gathered flowers in the morning with my mother, walking barefoot through dewy grass, knowing to side-step ant-hills like the grown-ups had taught her to. If she had stayed longer she would have known flowers and plants by name, shape, texture and smell just like I had.

J is now scared to walk down the stony path through the woods behind our community that leads to a lake. She sense of one-ness with nature is very much impaired. It scares me when I read "children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world -- with disastrous implications, not only for their physical fitness, but also for their long term mental and spiritual heath."

She will never gather twigs and leaves and shape them into ornaments with clay like I once did nor will she know the exhilarating smell of rain on dry earth from within the confines of her temperature controlled, French-windowed bedroom. Raga Megh Malhar would not cause her spirits to soar like mine.