Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Earth Day Special: Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow on the Rights of Mother Earth
A good message for President Obama at the end of this interview.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
LEOPOLD QUESTION 1
PLEASE READ THE SECTIONS BELOW AND THOSE SUGGESTED IN THE SYLLABUS UNDER THE WEEKLY READING SCHEDULE AND COMMENT ON THE FOLLOWING HEREIN:
1. WHAT DOES THE TITLE OF THE BOOK SAND COUNTY ALMANAC SUGGEST?
LEOPOLD QUESTION 2
2. WHAT IS THE SEASONAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE FIRST PORTION OF THE BOOK MEANT TO COMMUNICATE?
Friday, January 28, 2011
John Coltrane
“All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature,
and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.” -John Coltrane
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Snyder's Etiquette and Momaday's Rainy Mountain
Consider:
Snyder’s “Etiquette of Freedom” and Momaday’s “Rainy mountain” are parallel considerations of our place in nature. Both offer a language through which we might engage our relationship with the world. How do the languages of these texts compare, how do their culturally specific terms offer a new beginning (a la Lopez) or continuation for a (new) ecological consciousness and culture?
MOMADAY, RAINY MOUNTAIN
And consider then, Momaday’s book The Way to Rainy Mountain…what is the function of the Prologue, of the Introduction to the book? How does this book cross into the territory that Snyder defines? How does Momaday tell his story through his community? What is Rainy Mountain and what is meant by the Way there?
Snyder’s “Etiquette of Freedom” and Momaday’s “Rainy mountain” are parallel considerations of our place in nature. Both offer a language through which we might engage our relationship with the world. How do the languages of these texts compare, how do their culturally specific terms offer a new beginning (a la Lopez) or continuation for a (new) ecological consciousness and culture?
MOMADAY, RAINY MOUNTAIN
And consider then, Momaday’s book The Way to Rainy Mountain…what is the function of the Prologue, of the Introduction to the book? How does this book cross into the territory that Snyder defines? How does Momaday tell his story through his community? What is Rainy Mountain and what is meant by the Way there?
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Barry Lopez THE REDISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA
The first few short chapters of this small book address the
exploitative single mindedness that Christopher Columbus’
“discovery” of North America transported across the Atlantic
and that defined the terms of engagement with the new land
and its inhabitants. Lopez proposes that our existence here,
on this continent, is marked by this first encounter and little
has been done to alter the course as it was set back then, over
500 years ago. He defines the relationship as one in which
“instead of an encounter with ‘the other’ in which we proposed
certain ideas, proposals based on assumptions of equality,
respectfully tendered, our encounters were distinguished by
a stern, relentless imposition of ideas – religious, economic,
and social ideas we deemed superior if not unimpeachable.” (17)
Aside from locating us aboard Columbus’ ship as it neared
the “new world”, Lopez has us imagine what it might have been
like to have been a crew member, a common person, aboard
the ship. Someone employed to support the discovery and
exploitation, yet someone not directly rewarded for his actions
and in turn exploited because of his social status. The author
asks us to imagine the new world, its new life forms, its new
landscape with its inhabitants; and he asks us to imagine how
one faced with such novelty and beauty might remain blind
to it.
Reading on, Lopez takes us into a closer consideration of the
results of the voyage of discovery and the subsequent
settlement of the new world. Once we are brought into closer
proximity to the context he proposes, Lopez further asks us to
reconsider a series of vocabulary words the meaning of which
seems to have been lost or altered to support the erasure of
historical memory. The words include imagination, time, wealth,
residence, habitation, community, local knowledge, along with
the names of plants, animals, peoples, their localities, languages
and cultural traditions. All of these terms gravitate around what
we might come to consider as “a sense of place”, or querencia.
Querencia “refers to a place on the ground where one feels secure,
a place from which one’s strength of character is drawn. It comes
from the verb querer, to desire, but this verb also carries the sense
of accepting a challenge, as in a game.” (39) Finally, given this
definition, this term, this term of reference and residence we must
ask ourselves if we in fact feel secure in the place in which we
have come to rest, if we can call this place our own and, if we
in fact feel the slightest sense of discomfort there, are we up to
the challenge that it offers to make it a better place.
exploitative single mindedness that Christopher Columbus’
“discovery” of North America transported across the Atlantic
and that defined the terms of engagement with the new land
and its inhabitants. Lopez proposes that our existence here,
on this continent, is marked by this first encounter and little
has been done to alter the course as it was set back then, over
500 years ago. He defines the relationship as one in which
“instead of an encounter with ‘the other’ in which we proposed
certain ideas, proposals based on assumptions of equality,
respectfully tendered, our encounters were distinguished by
a stern, relentless imposition of ideas – religious, economic,
and social ideas we deemed superior if not unimpeachable.” (17)
Aside from locating us aboard Columbus’ ship as it neared
the “new world”, Lopez has us imagine what it might have been
like to have been a crew member, a common person, aboard
the ship. Someone employed to support the discovery and
exploitation, yet someone not directly rewarded for his actions
and in turn exploited because of his social status. The author
asks us to imagine the new world, its new life forms, its new
landscape with its inhabitants; and he asks us to imagine how
one faced with such novelty and beauty might remain blind
to it.
Reading on, Lopez takes us into a closer consideration of the
results of the voyage of discovery and the subsequent
settlement of the new world. Once we are brought into closer
proximity to the context he proposes, Lopez further asks us to
reconsider a series of vocabulary words the meaning of which
seems to have been lost or altered to support the erasure of
historical memory. The words include imagination, time, wealth,
residence, habitation, community, local knowledge, along with
the names of plants, animals, peoples, their localities, languages
and cultural traditions. All of these terms gravitate around what
we might come to consider as “a sense of place”, or querencia.
Querencia “refers to a place on the ground where one feels secure,
a place from which one’s strength of character is drawn. It comes
from the verb querer, to desire, but this verb also carries the sense
of accepting a challenge, as in a game.” (39) Finally, given this
definition, this term, this term of reference and residence we must
ask ourselves if we in fact feel secure in the place in which we
have come to rest, if we can call this place our own and, if we
in fact feel the slightest sense of discomfort there, are we up to
the challenge that it offers to make it a better place.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
KEY WORDS
Some Words to Consider in their meaning and usage.
What is Nature? Where is Nature?
What is Nature? Where is Nature?
Nature: one of the most complex words in the English language. Three branches of meaning 1. the essential quality and character of something 2. an inherent force which guides the world or humans 3. the material world itself, with or without human beings. Comes from the a root of nasci (L) meaning to be born which bestows upon it a sense of quality and process before becoming an independent noun. The branch of meaning related to an inherent force is also tied to the presence of a single prime cause...God and as such also the source of natural laws...the constitution of the world, universal and constant recurring force...
The 18th C bring about Nature as the "countryside" as an opposition to the town...nature is what man has not made...Nature-lover and nature-poetry date from this period.
As an expression of the "natural world" NATURE is problematic in the sense that it is difficult to view it objectively without overlaying upon it a conditioned eye. Nature can become an overly romanticized place that nevertheless lies outside of our immediate experience and canno therefore be known except through a mediated eye.
Nature is contrasted to man-made things…which we can eventually extrapolate to be natural since they are part and parcel of man’s “nature” to build, invent and construct.
Culture: This too a complicated word in the language, it also contains a sense of quality and process...it is accompanied by a sense of selection toward making something the norm. To cultivate is to prepare, groom, and selectively help blossom...agriculture therefore is a direct relative to culture as a process of preparing the ground for the proper propagation and production of a final product. Culture, as the aesthetic and intellectual construct we term “ours”…and the nourishing habitat of a “yogurt culture” (Snyder’s example).
Wild, a term that Gary Snyder couples with Free to generate “an American dream-phrase”. And he continues that to be “truly Free one must take on the basic conditions as they are – painful, impermanent, open, imperfect – and then be grateful for impermanence and they freedom it grants us. For in a fixed universe there would be no freedom.”
Wilderness/Wildness, are the places we don’t inhabit, that we set aside as parks and reserves for the former; wildness however can be said to be everywhere. And, possibly, even as wilderness diminishes all around us, wildness might continue to survive all around us. So wildness could be considered a term of energetic life force, a sense of vitality and vibrancy, that is of the natural environment.
Environmental Footprint: The amount of resources consumed by an individual. Does not indicate a "vital" level of consumption, merely consumption. Beginning with the assumption that there are world wide 4.5 biologically productive acres/person, we then calculate what our personal consumption is in relation to that. "The average ecological footprint in the United States is 24 acres per person."...which gives us a good indication of our position as consumers in the world.
Ecological Intelligence: Inversely related to the environmental footprint. Ecological intelligence is founded/developed upon our "conception of place", our relationship to the world and its resources and the recognition that we are dealing with a finite system of interdependent factors. Eco intelligence develops with recognition of interdependence and the increased ability to recognize and learn "the native language of the region."
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