Discussion: Yelling at plants

Am I the only one?

While doing some training the other day I had a few bouts w/ plants. Kept getting tripped up by vines and picker bushes, and then had one bush whack my eye. Such encounters often result in me saying not so nice things to the plants...

Which got me pondering as I was driving home reflecting on the training: It occurred to me this behavior may be very *not* normal for the general population, this yelling at plants thing. Seriously... who yells at plants!!? Why do I do this?? What would a passerby think seeing me yelling... AT A PLANT!!??

On a related note, I recall an SR-71 pilot saying "You haven't been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3!" In similar vain, perhaps we could say "You haven't really orienteered until you've yelled at a plant!" ? :D

There is always greater O-wisdom lurking in the corners of this forum on such critical topics like this... What are your thoughts, stories, and wisdom pertaining to this phenomena?

Loved reading this :)
I am constantly saying “ow” and “rude” and “bro” directed at the plant or other natural entity that just tripped me up or sent me onto my butt. I see it as a way of interacting, at a casual level, with the environment, and being in touch with the nature I’m experiencing. And, I personally think it is absolutely necessary. If you aren’t speaking with the terrain, you’re clearly not engaged enough. IMHO

orienteer and ecologist here. yes I have been known to yell at plants, but only when I'm sure they've been doing whatever it was that aggravated me on purpose.

I yell at plants but it's all in vain.

I yell and swear at all sorts of things in the woods, plants, rocks, mistakes. It helps me to relieve stress and pain.

I never got around to it, but years ago I was putting together ideas for a magazine article about plants I have developed a hatred of, for different reasons. (dang-blanged kalmia! #@&$¥ smilax!)

All the dead Tsuga branches in my face this past weekend were so annoying. Is it better to curse at dead plants than live ones?

He had heard about talking to plants in the early seventies, on Radio Four, and thought it was an excellent idea. Although talking is perhaps the wrong word for what Crowley did.

What he did was put the fear of God into them.

More precisely, the fear of Crowley.

In addition to which, every couple of months Crowley would pick out a plant that was growing too slowly, or succumbing to leaf-wilt or browning, or just didn't look quite as good as the others, and he would carry it around to all the other plants. "Say goodbye to your friend," he'd say to them. "He just couldn't cut it. . . "

Then he would leave the flat with the offending plant, and return an hour or so later with a large, empty flower pot, which he would leave somewhere conspicuously around the flat.

The plants were the most luxurious, verdant, and beautiful in London. Also the most terrified.

I did see you Ctrl-X Ctrl-C something into AP earlier and wondered what it was. Now I know.

I mostly talk to myself out there (control code and description, feature I'm watching for, reminders about technique, etc.) but I also talk to the terrain sometimes. That includes vegetation with evil motives and also steep slopes or mucky, flooded areas. I also sometimes tell the terrain how amazingly beautiful it is.

i often call branches or thorns jerks when they grab on to me and hold me back. plants (more specifically thorns) annoyed me enough to the point where I cut my hair right after because the thorns kept snagging on my hair and yaking my head back.

I don't recall yelling at plants.The plants are just sitting there. I'm the clumsy oaf whose trampling the small ones and crashing through the big ones.

But I've definately apologized to the plants.

I definitely talk to wild roses, and sometimes to raspberries.

There was a Goon song that had the words "I talk to the trees, that's why they put me away". In my case it was more blackberries last week whilst trying to check control placements in the dark.

I don’t usually yell at plants but I do swear at the course setters occasionally.

That's a given.

dang-blanged kalmia!

And all this time I thought Kalmia was Rosstopher's sister.

what Cristina said.

Ah yes, but it is often the course setters swearing at plants.

The Walrus and the Carpenter were walking hand in hand
They wept like anything to see such quantities of multiflora rose
If only this were cleared away, they said, it would be grand

I would not recommend yelling at plants in close proximity, since your breath would just make them stronger...

I've started talking out loud to myself about what I'm doing on the course and it's improved my navigation. If not my mind wanders or I just start humming whatever earworm I currently have - at present, that would be Who Made Who, going on about 3 months.

Definitely plead regularly with green briar. "Please let go. Come on, please?"
And then, "Thank you."

Those individuals who yell at plants no doubt are horrible people...they are also likely to be against The Green Agenda => very bad people...I see occasionally those maniacs in the woods running like crazy stomping on the precious bugs and flowers...members of the community must work together to report them to authorities for prosecution

I talk appreciatively to an occasional tree standing tall and aged...all seeing and knowing. I've even patted it. And, living in the East, I'm not even talking about redwoods and sequoias.

Briars and I used to occasionally fight to the death; bloodied, I always lost even though I might have broken thru the momentary restraint, leaving cursing in my wake.

Orienteering 'out loud' helps me focus on navigation. I've always been subject to "wandering aimlessly", needing to 'snap back' to the imperative at hand.

"I also sometimes tell the terrain how amazingly beautiful it is." Indeed. I do too.

The forest and its denizens speak back to us...if we can hear.

More than 40 years ago I was told that counting paces was an excellent way to get rid of earworms or other distractions, and I have found that it usually does work.
We are lucky enough to have mostly very little prickly/sharp vegetation, the worst might be some fields of stinging nettles near farms.
I never swear but I do remember being a bit angry with a nettles field last year in Denmark.
Does sub-vocalization count?

No. It must be shared.