The Environment

Today was the final class in Writer and The Environment for my MA Creative Writing Course at Bath Spa. Felt sad. It has been an intense Course packed into a year. We still have the final term to come when we work on our manuscripts but today was the last part of the formal teaching and workshopping in this module. Wednesday will be the final class in my prose workshop.

Writer and The Environment has surprised me. I thought it would be full of woolly headed left wing, bearded gentlemen, clutching copies of The Guardian and recycling their entire household. It has been anything but. Our tutor Richard Kerridge is very gifted and has led the Course in such a way that we have learned and debated, agreed and disagreed and have been enriched by his gentle and sometimes not so gentle cajoling. I have always loved nature, it soothes me in times of stress and has proved a far more reliable inspirer than most people. 

Just because we live in the 21st Century doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy and indeed relish some of the great lyrical romantic nature writers - William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Hardy, those people who sought to express themselves via intuition rather than reason. Sometimes it is, indeed, wonderful to be taken unawares by the sublime and find ourselves transported by an overwhelming feeing that is beyond our control. I have been part of a group of people gathered on a Mexican beach who each fell silent as a magnificent setting sun fell gently into the western sky followed by a small burst of dazzling green light, which appeared to us to be other worldly - an indication to each of us that our unsettled world could be infused, even if only for a short time, by a shot of magic.

When I am out of sorts and distressed I walk across hills and through the green fields of the English Countryside. If I am very lucky I find myself in Scotland and then I will walk through the golf courses of The Gleneagles Hotel and gaze at Glen Devon and be soothes and uplifted by the sight of the stunning beauty of the hills that change colour throughout the day. Or I will walk way up above Loch Tay and gaze across to the hills where I can see the figure of the ancient dragon who protects this area. It is said that dragons once lived in the hills and mountains and their presence still exists. I am certain I can see this dragon’s head, body and haunches quite clearly and feel this valley is blessed. I look down to Loch Tay and feel my anxieties quietly disappear as I experience a higher power - a power that doesn’t worry about irrelevant things like idle gossip but who rises above the mundane to encourage the human race to fulfil its destiny here on Earth.

It is these moments which sustain me in times of difficulty and distress. I believe in God so my higher power is God, but if you don’t believe in God the higher power can still exist as a pure benevolent force of supernatural being. 

But it isn’t only the sublime which sustains. Today we have an ever increasing urgent need to consider the planet and how we can stop our relentless use of its resources and our damage of it. A new kind of nature writing has developed through writers like Kathleen Jamie who rather than stand back and observe, write about nature as an intrinsic part of themselves. And that’s what we are an intrinsic part of the world and each other. Let’s not waste it but embrace the future for it is our gift to live it in the best way possible, for ourselves and for future generations.