How we think about and interact with nature reveals a great deal about how we understand our place in the world. For example, within contemporary popular culture we often think of our relationship with nature as something outside the routine of daily life. We seek out nature on weekends, during vacations, or in retirement. Nature is equated with pretty scenery, which in popular culture typically means forests, mountains, and wide-open spaces. This scene from Everglades National Park in Florida reveals a great deal about one of the main ways within popular culture that we express this understanding of nature: camping in the “great outdoors.”

Of course, there are many ways to camp. This particular form, recreational vehicle (RV) or motor home camping, is extremely energy intensive. Unseen in this photo is the supporting industrial manufacturing complex organized to produce a fleet of vehicles, trailers, and equipment, all of which are intended to be situated on an asphalt slab and connected to an electrical power grid. A lot of natural resources have to be consumed to experience nature in this way. Such an experience is shaped less by direct physical interaction with nature than by interaction with mass-produced commodities. Nature serves mainly as background scenery.

Thinking of nature as background scenery suggests a stage set for actors to interact on. Look carefully at the photo and you will see that this campground is a stage for both extremely private and highly public interactions. On one hand, every set of “campers” has its own private home completely sealed from the outside (e.g., note the satellite dish and rooftop air conditioners). Each RV is self-sufficient, requiring interactions neither with nature nor with human neighbors. On the other hand, the RVs are extremely closely spaced. Interactions among campers are almost forced, for merely stepping out of the RV puts one in public view. Conversations with strangers—even sharing drinks and meals—become a cultural norm in such a setting. Indeed, meeting new people is one of the reasons campers give when explaining why they enjoy camping. Could it be that getting in touch with nature really means getting in touch with one another in ways that would be difficult in the daily routines of popular culture?