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Man and the Natural World
The theme might say "man" and the natural world, but really we mean to say people, more specifically, kids and the natural world. It's all related, in other words. No matter if you're a man, kid, woman, whatevs, the natural world is going to show you something about yourself if you give it a chance. In "maggie and milly and molly and may," the ocean is a kind of mirror that folks can look into and discover deeper truths that you just can't find at a desk. There are no pretexts, no masks in nature. Everything has a real purpose with real meaning, and when you take a second to sink your toes in the sand, your mind has a way of doing the deep thinking for you.
By exploring all sides of nature—not just the pretty, friendly bits—the girls learn that the world is way more complicated than just being happy or sad all of the time.
Whenever we want to learn something about ourselves, all we really have to do is take a look at how nature works, just like the girls did in Cummings's poem. (And no, turning on the Discovery Channel doesn't count.)
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