Unseen City

I like this story about Nathanael Johnson wanting to teach his daughter the names of every tree they passed as they walked up the hill to daycare in San Francisco. I tried to teach my sons the names of trees and plants on our walks too.

She was a bit young for the project, but he also discovered that he couldn't name a single tree they passed himself. It is another one of those lost skills for our generation.

Johnson decided to educate himself and he went beyond trees to his city-dwelling birds from the thrilling raptors, to the clever crows, the screaming gulls and the misunderstood pigeons. He also studied the raccoons, rats, squirrels, and down on the ground with the little snails and empires of ants.

What came from this study is Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails and Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness. 

There is a definite unseen world all around us whether we live in a city, small town or out in the country. It is a modern problem that comes from not noticing things we see regularly, perhaps every day.

Johnson asks questions that we don't ask. What does the world look like through the vantage of a turkey vulture, or a squirrel, or an ant or a Ginkgo biloba tree?

His book, All Natural, has another one of those long subtitles, but it's a good summary of what he is up to in the book: "A Skeptic's Quest to Discover If the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing, and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier"

He questions, as do I, those “natural” approaches to eating, childbirth, and medicine. Are they really healthier? It seems to me that the rules keep changing and I feel like everything I think I know is wrong.

I suspect that someone picking up this book is also a skeptic looking for validation. Unfortunately, the believers don't want any evidence that contradicts their beliefs. Isn't this the problem with almost every belief these days from food to politics?

His website is  www.nathanaeljohnson.org