The editorial was written for the introduction of The Wine Hour #21 with Jason Haas.

Nature.

I love nature. Being immersed in it has been proven to make people feel better, be happier. There is something visceral being surrounded by nature. After all humans were not designed to live in concrete houses. In view of our evolution, we have spent way more time in the wild than in cities. OK, I agree that the likelihood of being eaten by lion city streets has been sharply reduced, but you do get hit by bicycles at a higher rate.

But what I found fascinating is our relationship with nature. We, the thinking animal, on whom was bestowed a reasoning brain and language, we quickly started to believe our own words. That science could understand everything, and that eventually we could dominate that nature where we have been coming from. Talk about hubris.

But it’s not that simple. After all, nature is far more complex than we have ever imagined. And each time we tried to reduce it to a few elements, bad things happened. Petroleum based herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, or GMOs. And then there is the effect on the climate, but don’t worry I will not go into that direction tonight.

So when it comes to our relation with nature, not one of dominator to dominated, it is far more normal to be in a partnership where understanding and harmony reign. So when I see people like Jason Haas, or Pepe Raventós, our previous guest, I am happy. Because they get it. I am sure they went through plenty of pushbacks, but that’s OK because their mindset is unshakable. It just makes perfect sense. Our wellbeing, present and future, belongs to a world where understanding our position within nature is crucial. Not as a master/slave relationships, which we have learned never turns out well.