I visited a couple friends at Carleton College in Northfield, MN — 30 minutes south of the Twin Cities — last weekend and subsequently had my mind blown. It wasn’t the dorms that look like Ritz Carlton hotels, nor was it the awesome 125-year-old astronomical observatory in the middle of campus. It wasn’t even the peace-loving, be-kind-to-everyone vibe that emanated out of every inch of campus.

Of all these interesting things, what floored me most was what Carleton students loving refer to as “The Arb.”

The Cowling Arboretum is an 880-acre patch of the most incredible wilderness native to Minnesota. It’s open 24/7, and it’s free to anyone who’d like to see what this part of the world looked like before human beings started tilling the life out of the land and paving it over to make room for parking lots and gas stations.

It’s got everything: wetlands, upland forest, oak savanna and remnant prairie — that’s prairie that hasn’t been touched by a plow since the moment it first crawled out of the soil. In a state where 99% of the naturally growing prairie has been destroyed and converted to farmland or grazing pasture since European colonization, the Arb is a huge, refreshing dose of realness — a reminder that humanity’s place in the world is in the middle of it with everybody else, not on top as self-coerced dictator.

It’s funny that people use the term “reality” to talk about things that are man-made.

Someone who says a friend needs a “reality shock” or who should “face facts” and deal with the “real world” is usually talking about something human, like how to handle a social situation, or how to act to get a job or maintain a relationship.

But, seriously, since when did the actions of human beings become the “real” world and the environment we came out of just the fuzzy stuff in the background that gets in the way?

It’s easy to see how we get to that point when every aspect of American culture encourages us to identify not with the uncontrollable spectrum of existence that is this crazy, whirling thing and instead to view our bodies and our schedules as the complete definition of what matters.

What helps the students at Carleton get over this illusion — and what contributes to their overwhelming chillness — is their school-sponsored oasis that is the Arb.

UND also has a place like this, though it’s not as accessible to students. It’s called Oakville Prairie, and it’s 900 acres of true reality. Professors in the Biology department use it for research, and I’ve been there on field trips for a class called Systematic Botany. It’s wonderful for its purpose, and it’s unbelievably cool to have remnant prairie so close to where everyone in town is driving cars and turning potatoes into McDonalds fries.

But I keep thinking about the Arb — its proximity on campus, it’s school-approved standing and it’s great reputation in the community — and how much UND students could enhance their liberal arts education if there were something so real they were encouraged to explore.

The earth makes a wonderful pillow. And if it takes an Arb to teach people that, then let’s start fundraising for one of our own.

Will Beaton is the Editor-in-Chief of The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].