Appearing today on the APH blog is an essay I developed recently for a class. My intent was to produce an example of the “complication, three developments, resolution” outline structure applied to the opinion-essay format (as opposed to an anecdotal narrative). But I also wanted to gather some disparate thoughts I’d been noodling on about nature, culture, and family. Sometimes we don’t know what we think until we write–the act itself brings the thoughts into focus. This was one of those times.

Click here to read “Restoring Family Nature: A Call to Action.”

In the essay I make the case that, akin to the Nature Deficit Disorder identified by Richard Louv in his book The Last Child in the Woods, we do harm when we neglect to connect generations of our families with the stories that reveal our family nature–the unique group of talents, attitudes, beliefs, ambitions, and values that make up our shared birthright.

In this photo my mother, aunts, a cousin and a family friend blend their voices in song around the old pump organ Muriel hand-decorated. (She decorated any object that held still.) This photo conveys so much that is MY birthright. I just wish I could HEAR this photo. Flip-cam, where were you in 1949?