Biophilia, meaning the love of life or living systems, was first brought up by American biologist E. O. Wilson. He suggested that humans have the tendency to look for connections with nature and other forms of life. I am here to tell you, I am a biophiliac. It's not by choice, but has turned into a lifestyle of loving everything with life. Be that a plant, fish, dog, cat or manatee. Since I was a child, I would talk to my mother's plants, urge to help the homeless man on the street corner, and cry any time one of the fish in our aquarium died or a sad story of a dog being abused aired on TV.
I own 12 different plants of four different types, 7 fish (all of whom have their own name), two dogs, one cat and a loving fiance. I grow my own vegetables from scraps of older vegetables. I also work in a hospital as a Patient Service Technician where my job is to improve the quality of life while being hospitalized. Life is a treasure to me.
You can imagine this as the opposite of a phobia, the aversion or fear of things in an environment. Philias are positive attractions to anything in an environment. Seeing a plant growing, branching out and eventually needing to be transplanted into a bigger pot brings me joy. A wagging tail or a soft meow thrill me. Don't even get me started on when an animal is taken off the endangered species list. This all may sound absolutely insane, but E.O Wilson's biophilia hypothesis suggests that this love for nature helps to sustain life. For example, primal ancestors would correlate a flower to fruit and would protect that plant so they can get food from it.
A theory I have can also be tied to the cartoons we watched as children. The one comes to mind for this particular topic would be The Brave Little Toaster. In this cartoon released in 1987, an animated toaster, lamp, vacuum, blanket and radio come to life with vivid emotion and impressive thought. It brought the idea that every-day items have feelings, can get hurt and love just as humans do. In the movie, the toaster and his friends go adventuring for their original owner who loved them unconditionally. The director of the film, Jerry Rees, had the philosophy, " despite being inanimate, they each symbolized things [people] actually feel." For a child to watch this, at least for me, I walked away from that movie with a new appreciation for everything! I'm sure that an avivid imagination also played into this.
Now don't get me wrong, there are days where life doesn't seem as bright and shiny, but I am reminded by the smaller things that there is a bigger picture. Like I stated earlier, a growing plant, though it may lose leaves and turn yellow, it will grow from that with the proper treatment and environment. I just see myself as needing to be the person to put that plant in the right environment. Hopefully after reading this, you may have a deeper appreciation for all that life has for you and all things that have life.
