plains-ache

From A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys:

They say German has a long word for everything. But among the dandelion networks, plains-ache is the yearning for an evolutionary ecology you’ve never lived in yourself, The body’s bone-deep knowledge of things that would make it not healthiest but happiest, that would feel right and quiet the anxiety-monkey behind your civilized forebrain. Walking for hours till you can feel it from spine to sole, a picnic with people you’ve known your whole life, a fresh-picked berry, a midday nap—a tiny taste of what your brain thinks it’s good for.

Rhyming with David Cain on the uncanny pleasure of doing things “civilization” has ostensibly saved us from:

I’ve noticed for a while now that whenever I do things a premodern human might do, I feel good. When I carry something heavy from one place to another, clamber over rocks, study a wild plant, or just search for a shady resting spot, there’s a certain instinctive peacefulness in the doing. I don’t exactly find these things “fun,” or entertaining, like I do eating Oreos or watching prestige television. I find in them a certain primordial satisfaction, a relief almost, like a fish might feel upon plunging into open water.

My suspicion is that some part of us, not necessarily a conscious part, is dying to do activities the human body and brain spent eons adapting to. Specifically, I’m talking about:

• Manual labor with visible progress — building something, gathering something (berries, firewood), whittling/carving/painting, sorting physical things, caring for durable physical possessions
• Sitting around a fire or meal (preferably both) with other people
• Exploring natural and unpredictable environments — parks are okay, wilderness is better
• Wordlessly accomplishing physical tasks; quietly attending to the doing and nothing else
• Using physically demanding modes of locomotion: walking, hiking, clambering, climbing, carrying
• Looking closely at the details of plants, animals, fungi, and insects
• Physically cooperating with another person on a task
• Searching or scanning the environment for a particular thing
• Sheltering; settling in to a physical space