I know I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was a very lucky kid. Not for the reasons that most people might think of what it means to be fortunate. I certainly was not privileged in the normal sense, in fact quite the opposite. Family life, to say the least, was distant much of the time and a very serious day-to-day struggle.

The reason that I was blessed is what I had available to me right outside my door. It was my gift, my escape, my respite, my chance to be myself and find myself. It was nature, the one true and only constant I had back then. And looking back, the unrealized advantages of growing up a Meadowlands kid. 

No matter what was happening in my life on any given day, no matter how bad it was, I could just go outside and things felt better. I did not need to ask my parents for a ride or wait for a bus. There was no need to delay until the weekend. I could open my door, walk a hundred yards and there I was, where I needed and wanted to be. The place that I have been connected with until this very day. The natural world.

Today, as I drive around our area of New Jersey, I imagine myself living in the town that I am passing through. Where would I go to find a butterfly that would stir my curiosity? Could I find a hawk that would give me goosebumps? Where could I even find the solitude of a tree to rest against and consider the world around me? In many towns there is nowhere that I could see and that should be a concern to all of us.

As we consider what environmental justice truly means (a phrase we like to throw around a lot these days) we need to recognize that every child, every adult, every senior citizen, rich or poor, middle class or whoever you are, has a right to enjoy the benefits of connecting to nature. Not just the folks that are fortunate enough to live in towns that still have large expanses of natural habitat (which by the way are going away fast), but also the towns that for the most part have no real open space to speak of.

To make nature available to everyone we will need to think differently, think out of the box and consider where we can give areas back to nature that previously were never thought about. Such as converting grassy street corners, parking lot edges and roadsides to butterfly habitat, and planting native trees, shrubs and flowers around the perimeter of playgrounds, which to me is a no-brainer. You want a pickleball court in your town? That’s fine, then create native gardens around the court. The same goes for tennis courts, soccer fields or whatever and wherever.

WE CAN DO THIS IF WE REALLY WANT TO. Otherwise, it’s just the naysayers making more excuses why they can’t make changes and get things done.

And then of course we need to control the uncontrolled building going on in every community in the name of ratables. Our elected officials like to say that they are making their towns more affordable. My answer to that is, you are also thereby creating overbuilt towns with no nature, where no one will want to live in anyway. Our right to have some access to nature, at least to me, goes hand and hand with rights like freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Without nature some of those basic rights have much less meaning.

We need to consider what happens to us as a society if we all lose our connection to nature. Needless to say, our mental and physical health will greatly suffer. But maybe worst of all, by not having that connection to nature, we will no longer care about it. Not caring about nature is like a terrible disease that quickly spreads out of control and allows us to no longer consider and care for the life that depends on us for their survival. Then one day we may find there will be no nature that might save kids like me, and that is what scares me most of all.

See you in the Meadowlands,

Don