Amy Lu's View

Happy Earth Day! Earth Day and I are both products of 1970 and Wisconsin! (Yes, I’m giving Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson credit for founding Earth Day).

I am hardly an outdoor adventurer, but I do appreciate lovely weather and the chance to be outdoors, especially this Earth Day. I’m not sure how I could stay even relatively sane during this pandemic if I wasn’t able to go outside for walks.

And that is about the extent of my outdoor activities–I like to walk and run and hike, but I have no interest in gardening or yard work, and very little in camping. And I don’t know how to ride a bike (yes, I’m serious. Okay, I kind of sort of taught myself to do a half-assed job of riding a bike when I was 10 and inspired by the movie E.T. and then tried again briefly in my early 20’s, but I doubt I could pull it off right now).

Sitting around outside can be lovely in a very limited conditions, but I’m uber sensitive about bugs, mainly mosquitoes. I argue that I am not just being a wimp, but that I am extra “allergic” to mosquitoes and react rather severely to their bites. This reminds me I have about a week left to enjoy the outdoors before mosquito season kicks in.

I think my blaise attitude about the great outdoors is rooted in growing up in the country. That may seem ironic, but for me, rural America was rather lonely and monotonous. A friend recently asked me when I knew I didn’t want to live in the country, and I was thrown because I never thought of country life as something I wanted. I always remember “wanting to get out.” (This was influenced in large part my mother’s unhappiness with our familial setting, I’m sure).

I’m learning to appreciate the natural world more and more as I get older, especially thanks to running. But it’s still a struggle for me to slow down (mentally, emotionally, physically) and pay attention to the nature.

Yes, I have purposefully focused this Earth Day post on my personal likes and dislikes, rather than on the real point of the day: the health of the earth. I just don’t have the emotional stamina right now to think about climate change. I want to be hopeful, but I really can’t think of much that is optimistic to say…Staying at Home has meant a reduction in traffic and greenhouse emissions?

And YES, I blogged even though my blog challenge ended yesterday! How could I pass up a major minor holiday with a Wisconsin tie?