The Spirit of National Parks From the Perspective of a White Guy

A Russian friend of mine once asked me why it is that Americans go to national parks to just simply gaze at the landscape. Like what is it that Americans see and why do they think it’s different from what others see? My answer was about the history of national parks, Muir and Roosevelt, and the pride Americans have about our vast natural resources and natural heritage, its beauty. She wouldn’t accept the answer. It seemed she wanted to know what it is about Americans that they feel their landscape is more beautiful than other landscapes around the world. I didn’t have an answer and I may still not have one, but I want to try. 

Americans are always seeking the question “what does it mean to be an American?” We certainly don’t only ponder liberty, freedom, equality, and the American dream. All of the American traits surely matter when chasing the American dream but what happens when they stop chasing the dream for a moment and find themselves standing in front of El Capitan or the Grand Canyon. 

I think Americans stop thinking about themselves for a moment when we are looking at the backdrop of mountains or a memorialized battlefield. We think of the larger picture of what made America. What is it like to fill the shoes of those Americans from a different era at a point in time that is fantastical for us, our favorite decade, our favorite point in history. Not only do we imagine what it must’ve been like to be alive during past wars, social movements, western expansion, and colonialism, we try to emulate those times to different extremes. 

If you want to be a cowboy go be a cowboy. If you want to be a teacher go be a teacher. If you want to be an activist go be an activist. We all want to be recognized for what we aspire to be. The challenge is that most of us want to be all of those things in a single lifetime. 

This is the land where a janitor can be both a cowboy and an activist but only when they want to be a great janitor. In America, a teacher does not do janitorial work at school but can go home to be an activist in their spare time. Both can make a difference at work but they can also strive for the American dream by aspiring to be cowboys outside of work as well. Not everybody can be a teacher and not everybody wants to be a cowboy. What makes a great janitor different in America is that the activist inside is teaching the values as a cowboy to keep their outside state pristine in the same way they would keep a classroom pristine. A great janitor can love their job inside and out. They can do their job, teaching all the while, not only cleaning for future cowboys and cowgirls but showing them their worth by showing up and doing that job with pride. Take away all the janitors for a month and try to learn in that environment. Take away the teachers for three months and hopefully those kids discover the outdoors. Take away the cowboy in any child and you take away the dream. Take away activists for the national parks and you have no America. That is what great Americans before us have done for our natural heritage. They filled all of these roles because they would have made great janitors too.

When we are under the spell of national parks we feel prideful on the inside because we have taken care of not only our own spirit but the spirit of the land. The spirit of those who dare to teach the spirit of the land along with the spirit of those who came before us should call themselves American. That is what makes America pristine and beautiful and worth an extra long gaze.