Our Living Context

Ecologist Martin Ogle

I spend much time in the woods as I always have because that is what my Father taught me to do for recreation and mental well-being. When I was a young boy, we would hike with Dad and Grandfather following a country stream into the woods. Sometimes we would fish, pick berries, fruit, or mushrooms. Mostly, it was about observing nature, seeing birds and animals and appreciating our ecology.

I visited the nature center at Potomac Overlook Park one morning where I met Martin Ogle, chief naturalist for the regional park. By chance, I learned that he would be lecturing about Gaia at the Arlington Artisphere last evening. (Artisphere is housed where the Newsium used to be in Rosslyn.)

Being one with the universe

Ogle presented a description of Gaia, our Earth, with a theme of our being one with it. He told stories as recreating an encounter by a Native American boy with a big rock that was to have been the source of all stories.

When he was officially telling stories, he wore a leather head band and would intermittently pound a drum song, or sometimes play a flute or make sounds from a bowl. He used rocks as props too, to discuss geology and paleontology. Projected on the round screen behind were visuals bearing photographs of the universe, planets, nature, and scenes from Potomac Overlook Park.

To me, one of the interesting descriptions was his comparing our human biochemistry and physiology with that of the Earth and universe as we are all systems being parts of a greater system.

Contemplating our relationship to the larger universe was a refreshing break from the daily grind of political news on the other side of the Potomac.