NDD

There’s a book out that I haven’t read yet with a title like Nature Deficit Disorder. I gather that the thesis is generally something along the lines of: we were made to interact with nature, and a purely artificial environment deprives us of certain kinds of training. Even tame outdoors environments invite the eyes to shift between the big picture and minute details, with every scale in between. As I sit here I see a painted wall. It has some grain to it, but no real details like those of the hairs on a leaf.

Even a tame outdoors environment is multi-sensory and varied. Just the presence of a few bushes or trees for shelter lets children create their own imaginative worlds of play, and it takes very little “wildness” to offer boys (and some girls) the chance to swing and climb and explore.

No doubt the author makes a better case, and offers examples. But I think I understand the principle.

We already know that green environments can be soothing, and CDs of rippling water or wind in the leaves or bird song and night noises are quite popular. I think it worthwhile to study the matter. Perhaps these sorts of things can help lower stress and maybe blood pressure. It would be fun to have a doctor prescribe a day in the desert, or a week by the pond, or a topical rain forest.