Derek Terrell: The Unsettling of America: Mutual Unity

" These things that appear to be distinct are nevertheless caught in a network of mutual dependence and influence that is the substantiation of their unity. Body, soul (or mind or spirit), community, and world are all susceptible to each other's influence, and they are all conductors of each other's influence."

I like how Wendell Berry compares living organisms to nature as being part of a mutual dependency network. There are many examples that help explain how these two identities are susceptible to each other's influence. For instance if you think back too when the world lacked a large amount if any agricultural development, back when people relied on nature( farms and crops) to survive. The plants obviously give food and nourishment to the growers, while the growers give the plants, in some cases, more nutrients then it may have gotten if it grew in its natural habitat. This mutual dependency can also be seen in controlled deforestation where many plants can't survive because of the overcrowding in bushy canopy trees, which blocks sunlight from the ground and understory levels of vegetation. By only getting rid of a few trees in these particular areas, it allows for these lower levels of vegetation to acquire sunlight and flourish like the previous trees did. From this mutual relationship, species diversity is added to these specific pieces of land, which in return may give us a stronger connection with the environment. By connection I mean that the new vegetation might bring forth animals and other variables that could give us experiences that we may never have encountered if we weren't conductors of each others influences.