You are an incredible survival story 4.1 billion years old…
The pull towards the wild comes to us through our 4.1 billion year old ancestral lineage argues Matt Cattanach, creator of Living Wild Project. With help from 4 children and a dog he attempts to unravel why fully appreciating and honouring this history can enhance health and wellbeing and increase meaning in our lives.
If scientific theory is correct you are an incredible survival story. You are a link in an unbroken chain of ancestors surviving and thriving on this wild planet for 4.1 billion years. While this epic timescale is difficult to comprehend it has moulded the DNA of our ancestors and made us into the upright walking hominids that roam the planet today.
From the first bacteria, our ancestors’ survival, depended on their ability to be fully alert and responsive to their environment. Through their adaptability, skill, ingenuity and a sprinkle of luck they survived to pass on their successful genetic material to the next generation. Despite this long period of contact with the wild shaping our DNA, most of us spend the majority of our days indoors and in front of a screen.
To pay homage to our ancestors, and grasp the significance of their time in the wild, I took my children, friends and our dog on a 1.4km bike ride, representing this remarkable success story here on planet Earth.
Photo: Jash Kothari (Unsplash)
As creatures with such a long history of contact with the wild what was this disconnect doing to our children? Is this separation and isolation from the evolutionary womb that created them, responsible for the alarming rate of anxiety and depression seen today in children of all ages?
The end of the line?
The lyric from the Travelling Wilburys is an apt way to bring this blog to a close. At the end of our leisurely 1.4km ride I asked the boys to first guess how much of the ride represented the length of time humans have been around on planet Earth? They chose three quarters, half, and one quarter. They were shocked to hear that humans have only been around for 2mm of the 1.4km bike ride (around 80,000 years). Our very recent shift to being indoors and on screens is just a microblip on this timescale and is represented by the width of a red blood cell.
If a 1.4km bike ride represents the length of time life has been unfolding on planet Earth, then what distance represents the length of time we’ve been living predominantly indoors and in front of screens?
In the bowels of Belair National Park (South Australia) we looked at the grey clouds looming towards us with a bit of trepidation as none of us had rain jackets. The irony wasn’t lost on me that I was making a video about our ancestors’ connection with the wild, yet worried about a bit of rain wetting a camera and soaking our clothes.
Before we took off into the unknown I wanted to press upon the boys the significance of the ride. The key message was this; If a 1.4km bike ride, represents the whole journey of life on Earth (from the first bacteria all the way through to modern humans) then what proportion of this history have we lived predominantly indoors and on screens?
As always the wild rewarded us with its gems. Sunlight illuminated the sporadic rain spitting down on us, with an accompaniment of chirrups from the birds feasting on nectar, oozing from creamy-white flowers, at the top of stately gum trees.
The freedom, grace and awe and wonder inspired by such beauty is a deep contrast to the state of being we experience indoors.
As an educator I have been lucky to visit and work with many schools helping teachers to find ways to reconnect children with nature. When I first began to realise that some children had very little exposure to the natural world I was shocked. There were many city schools with mostly concrete and astroturf yards, with a few token roses and trees around the front office. Teachers reported that many of the children they taught lived in houses with little or no yards and spent most of their spare time playing computer games or watching TV and YouTube.
Another useful way to picture this timescale is imagining you drove the 53 hour long 4,619km road trip from Perth to Townsville.
On this timescale humans only appeared on Earth in the last 10 seconds (90m) of the drive. The distance that represents our indoor, screen obsessed, modern life, is less than a footstep at just 5cm.A final irony is the amount of time I’ve spent on a screen crafting this article to tell you how special you are and delivering it to you digitally so that you can read it on a screen!
You are part of an incredible survival story. You are a link in an unbroken chain of ancestors surviving on this wild planet for 4.1 billion years. Ancestors who survived and thrived, leaving their legacy in you.
Now I’m off to the wild’s of Belair National Park on this rainy day. With shoes off and the lush moistness of the damp Earth beneath my feet, I’ll be drawn out of these ruminations about things past, into the beauty, wonder and grace of the present. What will you do today to honour the part of yourself that yearns for connection with the wild?