How to Look at Wilderness Essay

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Wilderness

Growing up gazing at the glistening Bosphorus, I never thought once that there was any part of our world untouched by the hands of humans. When my family took us on vacation, it was always somewhere beautiful: by the sea or in the mountains. The air was fresher over there; and my parents smiled much more than they do when they are home in bustling Istanbul. Weekend escapes to the Prince's Islands would satisfy our -- really, their -- longing for escape and solitude. Yet never once did I know that there might be zones devoid of human contact called "wilderness" areas, that were wild, untouched, and untamed. Sure, we read about the Sahara Desert and the Mongolian Steppe; the Australian Outback and Yellowstone National Park. But these places were just places, like any other. Beautiful, wild, and free: call it what you want, we people simply seek solitude and peace every now and then. It is a natural longing, and I have come to appreciate that longing now more than ever, as I mature and grow out of the need for constant social stimulation that characterizes life in the city center.

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It is understandable that when I left Istanbul I would go not to the wilds of Montana, but rather, to the familiar zone of urban intensity in New York City.

It is, ironic, that in New York City I would encounter my first dialogue with the wild. It's not just that Central Park is bigger than any "park" that we have in Istanbul. That much is true, but when reading William Cronon, I was challenged for the first time to think critically about the difference between the American view of nature and the one that I knew. As Cronon puts it, "wilderness is not quite what it seems…it is quite profoundly a human creation -- indeed, the creation of very particular human cultures at very particular moments in human history." Discussing the Cronon article with an American friend, it became apparent that the "very particular human cultures" part of Cronon's case made perfect sense. Wilderness is indeed an American mental construct that is not universal by any means.

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