The eCrozier

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup. ― Wendell Berry

It turns out that our experience of God’s natural world boosts our immune system, reduces our anxiety, and makes us less likely to engage in anti-social behavior. Smart people have been studying these correlations for years and each new study replicates these positive results. One study of residents in the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, a series of public housing units, showed significant social breakdown in buildings without trees and grass around them. In residential units with lots of greenery around them, just the opposite occurred. Residents reported, and police records confirmed, much more social cohesion and less crime.

Other researchers have studied urban vacant lots. Some were left “as is” with junk, garbage, and no greenery. These showed no change in the crime statistics in that block. Others were spruced up, trees were planted, grass was grown, etc. When the researchers tracked the difference, they discovered that in the block with the spruced-up lots police records showed violent crime dropped 9.1 percent. So, for very little expense and intervention, crime drops considerably when people are exposed to creation’s beauty.

Another study in London concerned neighborhood-based pharmacies. They scored each pharmacy based on how green it was around the pharmacy, how many people lived in that neighborhood, and how many people each pharmacy served. They then looked into the kinds of prescriptions, such as anxiety disorder and depression medications each pharmacy filled. Then the study compared people of the same economic class who received such prescriptions. They discovered a consistent, inverse pattern: Less greenery in the neighborhood equaled more anxiety disorder and depression prescriptions filled.
We have something in our bodies that biologists call “natural killer cells,” which are really a good thing. They kill bad cells and serve to boost our body’s immune system. Further research shows that after spending a three-day weekend in a forest preserve our natural killer cells are boosted on average by 50 percent. A similar three-day weekend in a nice urban area doesn’t do anything for our natural killer cells. Even a month after that nature weekend our natural killer cells are still boosted by 24-25% above our baseline. And here’s another interesting finding: it seems such a boost (albeit a more modest one) even occurs when people simply view videos of God’s natural world.

So, it seems, our emotional, physical, and social health is directly correlated to being in and/or exposed to the beauty of God’s natural world. That has led me to another insight that might explain things more. Congress does its work in a chamber that has no view of nature. I propose we relocate these anti-social, anxious, and dysfunctional people to the middle of Rock Creek Park, which is a huge, beautiful park smack dab in the middle of our nation’s capital. Problem solved. Soon our national anxiety and social dysfunction will be over, naturally.

+Scott