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Human / Nature.

ICYMI no. 025  |  July 2022

CHESTER F. PHILLIPS

Charging Lions

The midnight theft of a calf leads an unprepared rancher on a dangerous search

The first year we lived in Cascabel, our ranching mentors, Jim and Pat Corbett, had a saying they taught us—two middle-class, young-20s dropouts from strip-mall society, who showed up, with big dreams and no money, to live in a dirt-road rural community on the San Pedro River in southern Arizona. “Cows are people, too,” they said. It was meant to be a little funny, but not a joke.

ESSAY  |  CNF #40, “Animals” (2011)

STEVEN CHURCH

Trip to the Zoo

Trying to understand what might drive someone to jump into a tiger enclosure

My kids and I often attend the “keeper chats” about the resident tigers at our local zoo in Fresno, California. Once, when it came time for questions, I asked one of the zookeepers if she ever went into the cage with the big cats.

She gave me a funny look and shook her head.

“Nope, never,” she said.

The other keeper said, “I like life. I don’t want to die,” and then she kind of chuckled a little like you do with a child who asks a silly question.

ESSAY  |  True Story #2 (2017)

CLARE MAGNESON

Honest Like a Bear Attack

Things to say instead of “Please don’t die”

My dad is methodical, arguably overinformed, and thus cautious to the point of fearful. When my mom died, it was like my dad took on her worries too. We text a lot: concerns about COVID, Trump, climate change. Recently, he introduced a new concern: bear attacks.

ESSAY  |  CNF #77, “Resilience” (2022)

THÉRÈSE D’AURIA RYLEY

Even in a Concrete Jungle

A sociologist finds an unexpected essay in a city park

What separates me from the cinematographers of Animal Planet is not that I’m any less fascinated by the nature I observe. It is that human nature is deeply personal. Lions are fascinating because they are different; their lives are mysterious, and observing them allows us to pursue the unknown. Human nature seems less mysterious, but if so, it is only because observing human behavior is revealing of one’s own experience. Observing human nature is an intimate and vulnerable activity.

ESSAY  |  CNF #61, “Learning from Nature” (2016)

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ANJOLI ROY

Roxy and the Worm Box

A young adulthood spent in the city can ruin a person’s appetite for muck

“Are you ready to get your hands dirty?” she asked, pointing to my little gold rings.

I pulled them off and stuck them in my pocket. I forced a smile, breathing through my mouth, and nodded yes.

ESSAY  |  Sunday Short Reads #125 (2021)

CLINTON CROCKETT PETERS

Our World, Ourselves

As wilderness disappears, what happens to nature writing?

If Nature is Eden, what of where we actually live? Let me be clear: there is no “out there.” There is only the universe(s). Cathedral Peak is not heaven, but rain, wind, light, metal, and countless past lives compacted into time itself. Our bodies and all our garbage will become layers of this mountain.

ON CRAFT  |  CNF #76, “Exploring an Expanding Genre” (2022)

TINY TRUTHS #tinytruth

@buddy_smith199: I carry a kitchen chair outside, park it under a leafy maple. The kids stay inside, invested in some Youtuber’s antics. Now I’m reading Thomas Savage & hearing low thunder in the hills across the river. Stormfront. The coming wind is cool & too soon it turns the pages.

3:33 PM · Jun 18, 2022

@kellathornton: It’s after midnight, and I’m eating duck-fat caramels with a friend I’ve known since high school, and she’s spilled red wine on me and we’re laughing and stain-treating my new mustard-colored dress and this is middle-aged love.

1:28 AM · Jun 19, 2022

@evorbachcollins: We learn the language of cypher, our voices reduced to code. If you wish to go camping in a state where camping is prohibited, I will drive you. I will help you build your campfire. And we will never discuss your camping trip, ever again.

9:17 AM · Jun 26, 2022

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