Chapter 3, the Ecology of Eden

Moving on into further chapters of the ecology of Eden, Evan Eisenberg, in chapter 3, discusses the grand archetypes that the mountain and the tower are, and into the space where they collide, which is called the garden. In this chapter, he then challenges, the popular thought that the wilderness is only something that can be found in untouched areas, such as the Amazon, or the deep Arctic. rather, Eisenberg believes that wilderness can actually be found everywhere.

Something that I found fascinating, while reading chapter 2 is how he guards humans as edge creatures. He depicts how we tend to thrive in the boundaries between ecosystems, and specifically where the land meets the sea (funny because this is what we say almost every day when we do not understand each other). Discard the Isenberg introduces is our attempt to make that edge everywhere we go. however something that Eisenberg does warn us about is that if we begin to turn the entire planet into a garden and into that edge then we are at risk of losing the wilderness that makes the garden possible in the first place.

Following this, he then introduces the idea that a true garden is a site of beautiful and peaceful coexistence between both human intent and natural spontaneity. If the tower mentality takes over the garden, the garden, then becomes a sterile, managed landscape, such as our backyard grass. however when the mountain takes over the garden, then disappears into the woods.

Ultimately, this chapter kind of made me think about the concept of land stewardship in relation to land ownership. taking these two concepts together stewardship implies that there is a relationship with the wildness of the land and it's that we don't fully control. however ownership to me falls towards the tower side, making it so that the idea that the land is a blank slate of our own designs.

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