Komu and I took the good camera into the park today to capture the interesting fruiting bodies of the liverwort.  They look like something from another planet.  They may have been there for years escaping my notice.  Only by stopping and looking have I discovered so many interesting things about my forest.  I think the resulting pictures are amazing, but I am often mesmerized by the pictures I have taken.  They allow me to see more reality than first meets my eye.

The other day when I talked about the percentage of people who had various priorities when visiting the park, I miscalculated and came up with 110%.  Also, it occurs to me that people can have more than one goal.  I know that I do.  I also tried to think about those percentages and whether I had distorted them.  I thought about the percentages as I saw people on the trail.  I don't think I am distorting the numbers.

50% have exercise as primary goal.
25% have evasion of laws as primary goal.
10% have legal dog walking as primary goal.
10% have enjoyment of nature as primary goal.
5%   have no particular reason for being there.

As I stopped and took pictures, one man ran by us several times as he ran from the beach to the top and back.  I saw five other people who were running or walking up and down the stairs.  Five more people were families with children, taking them for a walk in the park.  Whether that counts as exercise as a primary goal, I'm not exactly sure.  The families I saw with children did not focus their attention on the beauty and fragility of nature.  One kid was throwing a ball, and the two little girls were throwing rocks into the sea.  I saw two people with a dogs on leash, at least as long as I was watching, and two more with dogs off leash.  I saw several people smoking, even though they weren't old enough to buy cigarettes, and it didn't smell like cigarettes.  Later, when I drove by the park in the evening, I saw a car parked with two people in the back seat, and the windows were to foggy for them to have been looking at owls or stars.  I did meet a mother and her adult daughter who had a good digital camera and they asked if the eagles were around today.  About five more people did not indicate, by their behavior, why they came to the park.  So, counting myself, 3 out of 23 people may have been at the park for the primary purpose of enjoying nature.  Today's observations would seem to support my perceived percentages.

If people have other reasons for visiting the park, how do I increase the percentage of people who seek out nature primarily for education, entertainment, and atonement?  How do I get people to notice tiny magical filaments with prismatic dew drops?  I can give a detailed argument why it is in the bests interests of the general public to improve their relationship with mother nature.  Unfortunately, reason is not always persuasive.  I know I often act against my own best interests even when I have facts and logic pointing me in the right way.  Unfortunately, Nature seems to need a PR man most of all.  I find this profoundly sad.  Still, I do like to take my pictures.  If my words won't work, I hope my pictures will help bump the percentages in Nature's favor.