Dangerous Nature

Last Sunday I took pictures of a tornado south of Satanta, Kansas. This week the conversation around town drifted to sightings of the tornado and gratefulness that no one was injured. This experience is one more reminder of the many facets of nature. Sometimes nature is understood as beneficial and harmless. At other times nature is ominous and destructive. At all times nature deserves our respect and admiration. For this reason, I encourage people to spend time in nature getting acquainted with its many facets. There is no way that we can establish a healthy relationship with the natural world if we continually fence it out, wall it off and avoid it as if it was a contaminating plague. I respected and feared the tornado and did not want to get any closer, but there are wonderful aspects of nature I must experience more fully.