Editor's letter: Passing on the love

(This story first appeared in the Dec15-Jan16 issue #19 of Green Ideas magazine.)

When we were kids my dad used to tell us stories about his childhood on the South Island’s West Coast. He would sit on the floor between our beds and talk about the forests pocked with abandoned mine shafts, about catching eels, and finding little brown tree frogs under rotten stumps. In my head these stories turned the Coast into a mystical emerald land – and my father’s childhood took root deep in my mind, no doubt helped by the fact that he would tell his yarns as we slipped into dreamland. I’m sure that the deep love I have for New Zealand’s wild places dates back to those bedtime tales.

I spoke to my Dad on the phone the other day to tell him how the little wine barrel pond on my urban deck had attracted a frog of its own. One of the tadpoles we raised last year had obviously hopped away, only to return to its birthplace a year later looking fatter and hoping to meet a mate. As we talked about our little green guest we reminisced about the Coast again, and it struck me how Dad still remembered every detail of the ponds he poked around in as a kid – which ones had freshwater crayfish, and when the frog spawn would arrive. That’s almost 70 years ago.

Today I look at my two daughters puddling about on our deck, prodding the caterpillars on the swan plant and harassing the frog, and hope that we can help them form a similar depth of love for the natural world. In the article that one of our contributors, Melinda Williams, wrote for us on page 38 of issue 19, she talks about how research shows “compassion for the natural world and a commitment to protecting the environment is formed – or not formed – during childhood”, and as a parent I want that for my kids. Not just because study after study shows they’re better off for spending time in nature, but simply for the pleasure of it.

And as a New Zealander I want that for everyone. For the pure pleasure of it – and because the best way to look after this place is to pass on our love for it, from generation to generation.

Greg Roughan
Editor, Green Ideas magazine

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