The National Parks: America's Best Idea

The series by Ken Burns is playing on PBS all this week.  John Muir was a major focus of this first chapter in the history of National Parks, which inspires me to learn more about him and his writing now that I've learned of the magnitude of his contribution.  But of course, the circumstances in which he existed - the people he encountered and for whom he worked - led to his importance in wilderness protection and parks advocacy.

Ken Burns interviews writers, historians and National Parks Service employees and, as well as film, he uses illustrations, photographs, letters and articles from the 1800s.  A theme that resonates with me from Episode 1 is the theme of coming home.  Muir finds that entering wilderness is like coming home.  A home that humans are aware of at a cellular level.  A home that our ancestors knew and we can never forget.  This is one of Muir's arguments for protecting wild places and the reason he keeps needing to return to the wilds of Yosemite and Alaska.  Wilderness is refuge and rejuvenation from the unrelenting urban environment, thus, protected wilderness is a human necessity.

I look forward to watching to rest of America's Best Idea.

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ  August 2009