Shankar Vedantam

We received a message from a listener named Allison about the many ways in which we imbue nature with human qualities.

When my husband died in 2011, I was driving back and forth to work after that.

And immediately the first thing that I noticed was how prominent the mountains became in

And I had like San Gorgonio on one side, Mount Baldy's on the other side.

I think there's even San Jacinto.

So there's three different mountain ranges.

And as I would drive to work, I would pass by the different views of each different mountain range.

And the mountains became personified and they stood for stability and strength.

And they, I'm sure, you know, I animated them in my intense sorrow at the time.

And so they made me feel like I, you know, was going to be okay.

Talk a moment about this, Mark.

We don't see a lake as just a body of water.

We see it as peaceful.

We don't see a volcano as just a geological phenomenon.

It feels like it has agency.

Randy told us about how when he hugged a boulder in his grief, it stood for stability in the midst of impermanence.

Is it possible that some of the effects that nature has on us is because of our own tendency to anthropomorphize the world?

One critique that we received from listeners is that our original conversation romanticized nature, Mark.

One listener moved from a city to a rural area and writes, for me now, walking in nature is a high-stress situation.

My dog and I are hypervigilant.