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<\/a>a gully was for a long time. \u00a0The rain was intense, coming down in sheets from a black sky. \u00a0Some thunder. \u00a0Looked like a hurricane. \u00a0Good for the crops. \u00a0We said that back in Indiana, too.<\/p>\nKona, our oldest dog, now 12 years +, has begun a decline due to a cancer lodged in her right shoulder. \u00a0I looked outside today, watching the rain pound the orchard and our flower and vegetable gardens, and thought of the close bond between caring for animals and caring for plants. \u00a0They go together, and raising a family does, too. \u00a0Nurture is part of nature, not separate, as the false dichotomies of science and popular wisdom have it.<\/p>\n
There is nature without nurture, but there is never nurture without nature. \u00a0And there is never good nurture that is not part of nature, that is, nurture that takes with total seriousness the lived way of another being and attempts to provide some guidance, some aid, some assistance so that that nature might be fulfilled. \u00a0At its best nurture leads the other to become the richest and most it can be on its own terms, that is, in its nature.<\/p>\n
Kona, like all the sighthounds with whom we’ve shared our lives, has gone her own way, decided what suited her best, and she’s done it with our support: \u00a0annual physicals, regular medications, good food, shared naps and nights on the couch, a sister to grow up with (Hilo, who died three years ago) and other dogs to form a pack. \u00a0This is, or at least I like to think it is, nurture in support of nature.<\/p>\n
When nurture opposes or distorts nature, then terrible things can result. \u00a0To stay in the dog world, look at Michael Vick and dog fighting. \u00a0In the human world think of the despair of all those students taught to the high stakes tests who fail. \u00a0Or, the soils burned and leached and flogged by agriculture methods that nurture only to destroy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0New (First Harvest) Moon We just had a gully washer. \u00a0We called’em that back in Indiana though I didn’t know what a gully … Continue reading Nature and Nurture<\/span>