Earth

Tonight Raven and I started watching Earth, the documentary nature series about life on our planet in various climates and regions. It is a second watching for me (at least in full, I have seen a few of the pieces many times on their own) and I have to tell you I love it just as much this time through the last. It should be clear from the start that I love documentaries of basically all types. About basically anything.

My first watch through of Earth came during college when my one of my best friends, Crane, got the full DVD series. And then showed it in our common area every night for a few weeks. It was glorious to watch en masse, with many of us poking fun at animals we saw on screen or more often staring entranced by the beauty of the scenery before us and the incomparable calm of David Attenborough's melodious voice.

Nature documentaries have become a staple of my life since taking up as a nanny. Both children love animals and the natural world and with non-educational screen time restricted by parents, both the kids enjoy watching nature documentaries. I'll admit I enjoy them a lot more than many of the alternatives they could choose (both educational and non-educational) so I tend to encourage this habit. But I have learned something interesting from watching all these shows about nature with so many different audiences (Crane is a biologist, Raven an anthropologist, and my kids are just kids). There are some things we all hold in common in the face of the natural world and they aren't the things I expected. I expected cute animals would make basically everyone coo and that the 7-year-old with a soft spot for her cats wouldn't like animals like sharks or wolves that preyed on seals or bears, respectively. Turns out I underestimated her. She understood and accepted the cycle of life far better than I did in some cases (it's hard to watch an adorable bear cub get attacked!) I also figured that younger kids would get more entertainment out of the animal portions and less out of the sweeping vistas and glorious panoramic shots of the scenery, Wrong again. A common thread I have seen with anyone watching a video like Earth is the appreciation of the world's beauty. A great snow-swept landscape is beautiful at 6 or 106.

I hope the kids I watch don't lose their wonder at the world they live in. I hope I can hold onto mine. I am so glad Raven shares that wonder with me. And that she will help me nurture and hold that wonder by reminding me that sometimes I need to immerse myself in reality when I tune out the world.


Good night all.

~Owl