Mental Health Day

Michael Webster

16 Mar 2025 • 7 min read

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if only we will tune in,

George Washington Carver

I took a mental health day last Saturday. I do that from time to time as a way to stay at least somewhat sane. It's very simple. I spend the day in the woods without a phone or book or anything to distract me from the natural world.

I spent the day and much of the night just wandering around in the woods and fields, examining rocks, talking to plants, passing by waterfalls, seeking mysteries down mysterious paths, but not trying to solve anything. Just trying to be in the moment, not the past or the future.

I vowed not be negative or argumentative or weird. I'd shut off my internal dialog as much as possible. I'd take only conventionally beautiful photos. Nothing sad, thought-provoking, or strange. And no thoughts about simulated reality or the multiverse, or any kinds of portals to other dimensions. Just nature. The here and the now.

Flowers, trees, clouds. Beautiful things that people like to look at. Maybe some inspirational quotes.

Back when I made the decision to dedicate myself to becoming a good photographer I started by photographing flowers (parking lots, too, but that's a different story). Flowers don't move much and come in an infinite variety of shapes and colors. I could work on composition and color theory without wasting people's time with some guy's learning experiences.

I like to lose myself in the photographic contemplation of nature. Photography requires a great deal of mindfulness and it's uplifting when the subject is nature. Total concentration on light and color and composition makes every other thought fade.

We have altered the landscape so much that little of what we see is natural. Our landscapes have all been altered. Buildings and pavement and power lines. Manicured lawns and managed forests. Even forests that are allowed to grow naturally are relatively young, having almost certainly been cleared and regrown several times over the centuries. Almost nothing in nature is as it would be without human intervention.

That's not always a bad thing. Nature in the big cities is much like human migration from the country to the big city. The more interesting and beautiful plants leave their boring small forests in the middle of nowhere and go live exciting and luxurious lives with other beautiful and interesting plants. And they get lots of perks like highly accomplished professional gardeners and ideal growing conditions.

"All flowers talk to me and so do hundreds of little living things in the woods. I learn what I know by watching and loving everything." – George Washington Carver

Another good thing about city nature is that it's often accompanied by information and art projects of different sorts. This time I came across a special garden honoring George Washington Carver. I didn't know much about him. Something about inventing the peanut. Or was it the boll weevil? But I read the quotes and biographical notes posted around his special garden, and then read his Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica entries so now I know a little about him. By internet standards I'm now and expert.

"George Washington Carver was a revolutionary American agricultural chemist, agronomist, and experimenter who was born into slavery and sought to uplift Black farmers through the development of new products derived from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. His work helped transform the stagnant agricultural economy of the South after the American Civil War. For most of his career he taught and conducted research at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Tuskegee, Alabama."

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." – George Washington Carver

Carver embodied just about every human trait we are taught to emulate. He lived right and did good on a massive scale.

"His great desire in later life was simply to serve humanity, and his work, which began for the sake of the poorest of the Black sharecroppers, paved the way for a better life for the entire South."

As someone born into slavery who had to bear the racial politics and segregation of his time, Carver did well to navigate the wreckage and build a place for himself where he could succeed at helping as many people as possible. I'm leaving out most of his biography for sake of brevity, but it's interesting on many levels and has lessons for how to live one's best life against formidable odds that are timeless. Look him up.

"Many scientists thought of Carver more as a concoctionist than as a contributor to scientific knowledge. Many of his fellow African Americans were critical of what they regarded as his subservience. Certainly, this small, mild, soft-spoken, innately modest man, eccentric in dress and mannerism, seemed unbelievably heedless of the conventional pleasures and rewards of this life. But these qualities endeared Carver to many whites, who were almost invariably charmed by his humble demeanor and his quiet work in self-imposed segregation at Tuskegee. As a result of his accommodation to the mores of the South, many whites came to regard him with a sort of patronizing adulation."

I'm a bit curious how the Britannica people know that whites regarded him with a sort of patronizing adulation? Did they leave journal entries or letters expressing their patronizing adulation? Did they give interviews?

"Carver thus, for much of white America, increasingly came to stand as a kind of saintly and comfortable symbol of the intellectual achievements of African Americans. Carver was evidently uninterested in the role his image played in the racial politics of the time. "

It was getting late and the sky was beginning to darken. I've mentioned elsewhere that I am old and crippled and have to take drugs in order to enjoy extended time doing strenuous activities outdoors. So I took a pain pill to get me this far, and now another one to get me through the night ahead.I'll have to drive three hours to get home, so I take some narcolepsy medication. So I'm numbed and awake a this point. I bought a bottle of wine and some cheese at Trader Joe's for the ride home. I take some mescaline, which helps me see in the dark.

"Most people search high and wide for the key to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within." – George Washington Carver

Before long it's dark and I'm laying in an open field. I notice there's a full moon and a ring and a blue column of light across the ring. I figure that must be an omen of some sort, but I don't know what. Or care.

I get up and walk towards a distant tree line. The moonlight is starting to go a bit awry.

Suddenly the woods explode with color and strange sights. The moon descends from the sky and hovers just above the ground behind the tree line.

The ground is on fire.

People come out of the moon and dance to loud, pulsating music. EDM, surprisingly. I would have expected something more New Age-y.

The music turned into colorful sound waves.

Then all the colors fell apart. It's lights out.

"Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise."

I remember getting up with the sun, but don't remember much about the drive home. The wine was good.

Back to unreality.

Here we be.

-30-

All George Washington Carver info from the Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "George Washington Carver." Encyclopedia Britannica, February 18, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Washington-Carver.