It’s not ridiculous. It’s short-circuiting the depression that comes with loneliness by allowing the primal part of you to reconnect with nature. It works. There’s a whole industry around this premise. Once you reconnect with nature, your immediate instinct is to reconnect with others. So in a way it’s paving the path back to social relationships and community.
> Once you reconnect with nature, your immediate instinct is to reconnect with others.
I have the complete opposite experience. I spend as much of my vacation time as possible hiking, camping, and backpacking alone. I go to places where the landscape is so beautiful that it makes me weep; where seeing the unusual flora makes me feel like I'm home; where the night sky is like diamond dust on black velvet. These places don't make me want to reconnect with others. They make me want to build a cabin and get away from everybody else.
I'm skeptical of this idea in general especially with examples of people like John Muir. If reconnecting with natures gives you the immediate instinct to reconnect with others then why do people like him have to be coaxed away from it?
I think you might be seeking escape rather than reconnecting with nature. Those are two opposing desires. One is the desire to escape the monotony of everyday life by getting back into nature. The other is losing oneself to nature. No going back. Only forward. Akin to hiking the Appalachian trail or the PNW trail in one go. It’s not an escape, it’s a calling or yearning for growth.
