When reading Dr. Saito's article I decided to explore the idea of myth being attached to place and how that may place significance in a person's perception of the natural environment there. My mind jumped first to the Giant's Causeway in Ireland which looks like a series of steps leading into the sea. The legend attached to this natural landscape was that there was an Irish warrior who built the causeway so he could go fight some warrior in Scotland.The landscape is fantastic look at and it does generate make people stop and appreciate the natural scenery, but this place is also used for heavy tourism. I know that Saito seemed to think that we should get away from viewing nature in an associative manner. She did state that natural environments that were held in significance bcause of the "human drama" that surrounded that environment was not a true way to appreciate nature, but after looking at The Giant's Causeway, I feel that it humans need a different lens to approach the environment in order to appreciate not just as a landscape with a mythical story, but as a serious, geological formation which seems realistic to what Saito wanted her readers to do. I think this task will be difficult though and propose different kinds of challenges to really focus people's perceptions on how to view nature.
This myth seems to me to be about the natural area. I would say the Giant's Causeway myth is more than a human drama. The Irish warrior is a merely explanation for the contours of land rather a historical recount of actual human deeds. It falls in the same category as the Paul Bunyan tales.
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