Prairie Pride

I wrote this essay for my ecocriticism class:

So many people find the Great Plains boring. To those accustomed to an abundance of trees, mountains, and variation, the scarcity of detail can seem overwhelming. Those from the mountains visit the plains and see only a lack of mountains. Those from the forests visit the plains and see only a lack of trees. But those who live on the plains see what is there: not what is lacking- such as a lone tree, or the grass itself. This does not mean that those from the mountains or forests cannot see or appreciate beauty: just that the Great Plains are not their home. To feel at home in a landscape one must be able to see its beauty, and the landscape one feels at home in molds one’s perception of what a landscape should look like to be beautiful.

Most Americans today cannot say they feel at home in any particular landscape, because they have not stayed in one place for more than a few years. Also, the majority live in cities where a close relationship to land, weather, and wildlife is not needed nor available. A person can wake up, get ready for work, get into their car via the garage, push the garage door opener button, drive to work, park in a parking garage, take a tunnel or elevator to the office, work, and go home, all without going outside. When the urge comes to go outside, a person can fly to one of many beautiful -usually mountainous- hiking or skiing spots. When you’re going to go outside for only one week of the year, why not go to the most spectacular and ostentatious landscape? It’s no wonder the Great Plains are also called the “fly-over” region of the U.S.A. People would have a greater sense of “home” if they stayed in one place long enough, or at least took time to notice and experience the natural ways of the landscape they live in. Having this sense of home would make people less restless and more content, not to mention more proud, knowledgeable and protective of their landscape.

This kind of pride in one’s homeland is only possible because landscapes vary so widely. A person who has always lived near the mountains would have a hard time getting over the flatness of the Great Plains. They have grown used to the sense of the mountains’ protective presence, just as a person from the plains might grow used to the freedom and openness of the prairie. For the first few days after I moved to Utah-only the first few- I would sense a shadow above my head while walking to class, and would actually flinch, as though I suddenly saw I was about to bump my head. It was just the mountains, seen from the top corner of my eyes. I was so used to seeing nothing up there -unless I really were about to bump my head- that it actually took my automatic reflexes a couple days to adjust. Simply the -somewhat unconscious- aesthetic experience of the landscape I was raised in changed my way of seeing landscapes. This showed me that, although I thought the mountains were beautiful, they were not home to me. Living in the mountains is like living in someone else’s house, and never being able to find what cupboard the cups are in until several doors are opened.