EARTHBOUND- BELL HOOKS

In Earthbound, by Bell Hooks talks about how the Kentucky hills were the place of her early childhood. She was surrounded by a wilderness of honeysuckle, wild asparagus and sheltering trees, bushes shielding growing crops, and the huge garden of a black landowner. The main topic disscussed in this essay is nature. Hooks was taught about the power of nature by farmers that wilderness land, the untamed environment, can give life and it can take life. The quote at the end of the paragraph explains mainly what the topic of nature is about, being disscussed by Bell Hooks. "Humility in relationship to nature's power made survival possible." This transitions into the next topic of equality. Equality focuses of slavery and how bad the blacks, which originated from the agrarian south, had it in Kentucky. "Working the land was the hope of survival". This gave the blacks the hopw that they would survive, however Hooks arguement is that we are all equals and we will all die eventually. She then goes on to talk about how in the country there is no discrimination and everyone is the same. This reminds me of what life is like today. Yes, some people are still a little racist, but they have no power or control anymore. What if life was still separated into black and white? I know that I would be affected by this. Three of my siblings are half black and I don't know what I would do without them. Things have changed a lot since Bell Hooks was growing up in Kentucky, and I for one am very happy about that.
In Kentucky, they are all about nature. "Maintaining intimacy gives us a concrete place of hope. It is nature that reminds us time and again the 'this too will pass'". The state of Kentucky has the luxury of having beautiful trees and hilly waterfalls, and being surrounded by all this nature, but some states just don't have that. And other states like to look at nature in a whole different perspective, which is something Bell Hooks cannot grasp the concept of. She thinks that urban cities have destroyed nature, but in reality they are just using the nature to fit their lifestyles. If people that live in the country didn't have the city it would be hard for them to survive, so for Bell Hooks so be so upset is unbelievable. I enjoy nature as much as the next person, but it's nice to live in the city where that can make and produce the supplies that help me survive. When the topic of pollution was brought up, I wanted to laugh. This comes back to the obnoxious topic of Global Warming. Honestly, I believe that there is no such thing, and I don't think Hooks knows what she's talking about when she says that she is disgusted by the amount of pollution that cities are bring into nature. Hooks believes that to live in a communion with the earth, surrounded by all its nature, it is a practice of spiritual mindfulness that heals a restores.

"We create and sustain environments where we can come back to ourselves, where we can reture home. Stand on solid ground and be a true witness." This ending quote puts into perspective what Bell Brooks is trying to get across in her essay, which is that she loves her home and the nature that surrounds it.