Fifty years ago I was a nerdy eight-year-old developing an interest in the natural world. Something wonderful happened. The Canadian Wildlife Service began running one-minute, black and white television spots called Hinterland's Who's Who featuring various Canuck creatures in their natural habitat. The gentle flute intro and the looowww-kkkeeeyy narration have been much parodied through the years, and the late John Candy's woodchuck bit is a classic.
At the end of each vignette there was an invitation: "For more information on the [animal], contact the Canadian Wildlife Service, in Ottawa." You may have wondered if anyone ever did contact the CWS. Oh ya, it was moi. I would send off my letter and before long a package would arrive in the mail with bulletins on the birds and animals I had requested. It was wonderful. Stop sneering!
As a nerdy fifty-eight-year old I am still fascinated by the complexity of the world around us. I have developed a theology of creation and come to appreciate how the evolutionary process informs my sense of God as Creator. Hey, this is God's Wondrous World. Fifty years ago few of us had much of a sense of the web of being, the complex interconnection of all living things, but it has developed over time.
There is still a Hinterland's Who's Who but of course today it is accessed online. http://www.hww.ca/en/index.html Perhaps it is more important in this 50th anniversary year than back then. As a kid I was outside all the time, as were most children of the day. Our 'biophilia" or love of nature came about by osmosis. There is so much helicopter parenting now and earnest inside activity (not to mention virtual reality) there aren't the same opportunities for children to immerse themselves in the natural world. Or so it seems to me.
Any other Hinterlanders out there? Are we creating a generation of kids who don't know the out-of-doors? What is our responsibility as Christians to encourage appreciation of creation?
Loved these growing up. I never knew that you sent off for more info though :-) That's cool. Trying to figure out when to start traipsing with Nicholas out in to the wild blue yonder.
ReplyDeleteBecause I am so fond of you, I feel I should stand in soldiarity and confess that I was the nerdy child who sent away for the free metric conversion posters offered through the government TV commercials in the 70s. I am pretty certain mine were the only copies ever sent out. The commercial made all seem so exiciting, a whole new world was coming our way!I swear though that it was my mother who kept them. I was ready to throw them out around the time I fell in love with Shaun Cassidy. Alas though my love for the Blue Heron remains just as strong as that first sighting.
ReplyDeleteI will do my best to "wild blue yonder" Nicholas as grandpa as well -- or whatever else he may call me.
ReplyDeleteWell Lori, you take my breath away with the metric conversion posters. Nerds of the world unite! I could have used one of those charts, although I consider myself fully "bilingual" in metric and imperial.