Here’s the walking trail above the orchards west of my house in late winter. Notice how the path is as wide as a road, is packed down from human traffic, and is used by deer only to cross in a hurry, as they have better places to be, which is the same as saying that this is dead space.

Think of that: this major “recreational” area, where the humans of the North Okanagan can experience “nature” is shunned by nature, which is as much as saying it is not nature at all, even though people go there daily to experience it. Notice how the same herd of deer have no use for farm driveways or deer fences. The one, the road, used for human communication, is a dead zone. The other, the fence, labeled as protection against deer yet which is really also a form of interpersonal communication, does not, as you can see, keep deer out.

Isn’t that amazing, and obvious, too. Human communication is meaningless to deer, and often deadly. Huh. What’s more, attempts to protect farms from nature fail. Again, huh. Imagine if we actually communicated with deer. Imagine if our communications weren’t deadly.