This week I start the last required class of my MPA program. It feels crazy that it's ending and even crazier that it ever began. I sort of stumbled on political science and public administration as a field of study - and it has turned out to be a delightful surprise. Studying literature as an undergrad fed my soul and increased my capacity to think critically about the world around me and my ability to articulate it all. (What more could anyone want from her college experience?!) At first, I didn't feel that way about my MPA classes; I felt a little . . . empty. Okay, maybe empty is too strong a word, but it certainly didn't fill me up like studying literature and language. Until, that is, I realized that it is literature and language with all the same compelling drama and import, it's just a specialized branch with more practical applications (at least according to the economic powers that be). I often wondered - at night, when I was huddled under the covers reading literature instead of, say, doing research for a paper - if I had made the wisest choice. But now I know.
Since spring semester finished in May I've been doing a bit of fun reading - both fiction and non-fiction of various stripes and colors. I even bought a policy analysis book for summer reading. F-U-N, right? A little beach reading, perhaps? Well, I started reading and loving it. When I went to class on yesterday, I found out that sections of my new book are required reading. And I loved my life.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
7.01.2010
4.21.2010
the hardest part
At some point, blogging made its way to the bottom of mental to-do list and stayed there as other items were added to the top or inserted in the middle. The actual problem is that blogging exists on any list - I prefer to think of it as an escape from the things I'm supposed to do. But now it's been too long, and, as we all know, starting is the hardest part. Here are some random updates from my life to get started again:
- I wrote a sixteen page final project for Org Theory yesterday. Like I said, starting is the hardest part. After I got going, it wasn't so bad. I'm starting to worry about my addiction to the adrenaline associated with my procrastination habit. Is there some kind of treatment for that? If only I had something due every day, I think I could have finished a dissertation by now.
- Speaking of dissertations, I'm helping my Public Lands Policy professor with his - references, formatting, etc. Between his dissertation and my research paper, it's going to be all public lands all the time. (I know; you wish you were me right now.)
- I have developed a mini mania for the writing of Sarah Vowell and recommend her books (I've only read two, but I imagine the others are just as great). I can't wait until May, when I can feel good about reading things that have nothing to do with hardrock mining laws, the Forest Service, or cattle grazing on public lands.
- We are going on a much needed vacation. Since the 247 Tom Petty songs on Clark's ipod are not enough to satiate his appetite for all things Tom Petty, we planned a trip to visit friends that coincided with Tom Petty Tour 2010. Three days after Clark purchased his ticket, the tour switched its dates around. Of course, this doesn't mean Clark would actually miss the tour; he's planning a pilgrimage to Canada in June so he can bask in the glory of "Free Fallin'" in the company of several thousand strangers, most of them Canadian. Under different circumstances, I might protest going such great lengths, but I have to admire that kind of dedication.
- I have eaten an avocado and an orange almost every day for the past 4 months. It's like a little bit of sunshine every day to get a girl through the Idaho winter.
- I'm making a surprise for Clark's birthday (May 17). We are both notoriously bad at surprises and secrets because we just can't wait to tell each other anything exciting. I'm telling you to help me not tell him. Shhh!
- Lately, I spend a little time each day coming up with a new life plan. Most of them include living in a big city or another country. Sometimes both. None of them includes Idaho Falls. Next step: learn Farsi, Korean, and Russian and get a job with the State Department.
- You may have noticed here are no pictures in this post - nor will there be any personal pictures in the near future. Last time I used my camera was on a February snowshoing voyage to a ghost town near Teton National Park, an event which was well documented until said camera disappeared under melted glacier water. It may sound like near tragedy, but I actually really hated that camera.
12.13.2009
'baring our souls and telling the most appalling secrets'
One of the classes I took this fall was a leadership class. My classmates and I did projects and case studies and a therapy-inducing 360 review to evaluate and develop our leadership capacity. As the culminating project, we were asked to write a "This I believe" essay to help us identify our core values. Writing the essay was an interesting experience; it made me realize that while my values don't change easily or often, the way I choose to express them does. Needless to say, there were drafts and drafts of drafts before I was finished. The hardest part was knowing that I would have to deliver it as a speech to my class. How much of your soul can you comfortably share with relative strangers? Turns out, not very much; I prepared to get uncomfortable. Some of my classmates' essays were deeply personal, sharing details about losing children, finding forgiveness, and developing or losing faith. Others were more of the bullet point variety. I think mine lay somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Anyway, I figured if I could share it with them I could share it with you, so here it is:
December 2009
I believe a culture that values education will thrive and grow. Education bears the fruit of tolerance, self-knowledge, and positive social change. I believe learning is its own reward and that those who believe money is their reward for education, will get it, and without much trouble but likely without much knowledge. While a college degree happens to be a strong social currency, Education and its applications are not and must not be confined to classrooms. Jed, a young student I met while working as a writing tutor, showed me this (names have, of course, been changed). He returned to college after serving a sentence for a felony conviction. While working together on his essays, he confided that by going to college, learning to focus on math and sociology and writing, he has also learned to control his anger. He now has some good friends, a scholarship, and a fresh start. I believe in education. I believe it is the best solution to long-term problems because it is the only long-term, transformative solution.
I believe in the power of food as a healing instrument and a means of cultural self-expression. Every day I make choices between options that are narrowed by a culture that is powered by corporations and industry. I have the power to take back my original, now invisible options. Common sense and communion and have given way to Gogurt and Gushers, fruit loops and high-fructose corn syrup. Before they came from multivitamins, nutrients came from food. Uncomplicated, unpackaged, unprocessed food. Last summer I found a part of myself as I learned to make cheese from milk as my great, great grandmother must have done, and yet another as I visited the farm where my food was grown and grew more vegetables in my own garden. I can comprehend, though vaguely, the complexities and joys of life halfway across the world as I parse a complicated curry or burn my first souffle. I believe Food is a way to simultaneously connect with the earth from which it came and the people who create meals from its bountiful ingredients. When I make deliberate choices about food, I recognize myself as a part of the whole.
I believe the mouth is one of the most important parts of the body. It is where nourishment enters body and the mind finds expression as ideas exit in the form of words. I believe that I, along with many others, would find more happiness and health if I guard more closely what goes in and what comes out. A large ship is indeed guided by a small rudder.
I believe in the transformative nature of words and ideas. Among others, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and Harper Lee have shown me the power of words and parts of me are real products of their fictions. Scout’s innocence and evolving devotion to justice, Pip’s realization of his self-destructive search for external happiness, and Jean Val jean’s story of kindness, mercy, and personal redemption express some of the best parts of me and ideals to which I aspire.
Although I had read or been read to all my life, the first book I remember getting excited about is Johnny Tremain. I was ten, and my teacher had assigned the book. I read it twice, once for fun, and answered every question with a paragraph where a sentence would have sufficed. A new world had been opened. Reading has allowed me to glimpse the wonder of science, experience the beauty of a diverse humanity, and find companions in this human experience.
I believe that we are connected in ways we do not and cannot understand that are best expressed through literature. Poetry, once inaccessible to me, has given breath and validity to my own deepest emotions and core beliefs. With John Donne, I affirm that all mankind is of one author, no man is an island and that any man’s death diminishes me. I believe, like W.H. Auden, that we must love one another, or die. These words and ideas penned by great authors and poets have allowed me to think their thoughts and become, if only slightly, the product of their ideals. God bless Gutenberg.
Okay, bloggers, Consider yourselves "tagged." If you choose to blog a This I Believe essay, post a link in the comment section; I would love to read yours, now that I've borne my soul. It's a challenge, and knowing that someone else will read it changes the quality of the experience. You'll find instructions here. Who knows? You may like it so much that you'll want to go on the record by submitting it to the NPR Essay database.
December 2009
This I believe
I believe a culture that values education will thrive and grow. Education bears the fruit of tolerance, self-knowledge, and positive social change. I believe learning is its own reward and that those who believe money is their reward for education, will get it, and without much trouble but likely without much knowledge. While a college degree happens to be a strong social currency, Education and its applications are not and must not be confined to classrooms. Jed, a young student I met while working as a writing tutor, showed me this (names have, of course, been changed). He returned to college after serving a sentence for a felony conviction. While working together on his essays, he confided that by going to college, learning to focus on math and sociology and writing, he has also learned to control his anger. He now has some good friends, a scholarship, and a fresh start. I believe in education. I believe it is the best solution to long-term problems because it is the only long-term, transformative solution.
I believe in the power of food as a healing instrument and a means of cultural self-expression. Every day I make choices between options that are narrowed by a culture that is powered by corporations and industry. I have the power to take back my original, now invisible options. Common sense and communion and have given way to Gogurt and Gushers, fruit loops and high-fructose corn syrup. Before they came from multivitamins, nutrients came from food. Uncomplicated, unpackaged, unprocessed food. Last summer I found a part of myself as I learned to make cheese from milk as my great, great grandmother must have done, and yet another as I visited the farm where my food was grown and grew more vegetables in my own garden. I can comprehend, though vaguely, the complexities and joys of life halfway across the world as I parse a complicated curry or burn my first souffle. I believe Food is a way to simultaneously connect with the earth from which it came and the people who create meals from its bountiful ingredients. When I make deliberate choices about food, I recognize myself as a part of the whole.
I believe the mouth is one of the most important parts of the body. It is where nourishment enters body and the mind finds expression as ideas exit in the form of words. I believe that I, along with many others, would find more happiness and health if I guard more closely what goes in and what comes out. A large ship is indeed guided by a small rudder.
I believe in the transformative nature of words and ideas. Among others, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and Harper Lee have shown me the power of words and parts of me are real products of their fictions. Scout’s innocence and evolving devotion to justice, Pip’s realization of his self-destructive search for external happiness, and Jean Val jean’s story of kindness, mercy, and personal redemption express some of the best parts of me and ideals to which I aspire.
Although I had read or been read to all my life, the first book I remember getting excited about is Johnny Tremain. I was ten, and my teacher had assigned the book. I read it twice, once for fun, and answered every question with a paragraph where a sentence would have sufficed. A new world had been opened. Reading has allowed me to glimpse the wonder of science, experience the beauty of a diverse humanity, and find companions in this human experience.
I believe that we are connected in ways we do not and cannot understand that are best expressed through literature. Poetry, once inaccessible to me, has given breath and validity to my own deepest emotions and core beliefs. With John Donne, I affirm that all mankind is of one author, no man is an island and that any man’s death diminishes me. I believe, like W.H. Auden, that we must love one another, or die. These words and ideas penned by great authors and poets have allowed me to think their thoughts and become, if only slightly, the product of their ideals. God bless Gutenberg.
Okay, bloggers, Consider yourselves "tagged." If you choose to blog a This I Believe essay, post a link in the comment section; I would love to read yours, now that I've borne my soul. It's a challenge, and knowing that someone else will read it changes the quality of the experience. You'll find instructions here. Who knows? You may like it so much that you'll want to go on the record by submitting it to the NPR Essay database.
11.19.2009
gobble, gobble
Sara asked, so you all get to know.
"Just curious - are you outright vegetarians or will you be feasting upon the turkey this thanksgiving?"
So glad you asked.
I think our friend Randy summed it up best when he said, "So, you don't eat meat, but you're not vegetarians."
It all started because I love food and I love to read, which eventually led to reading about food . . . how to cook it, bake it, roast, it grill it, grow it, spice it . . . and then I got to how it is processed*. I don't have to be too explicit (nor will I, for my bacon-loving friends' sake). But, I will say that don't ever want to a) eat animals as if they are just protein delivery systems, b) vote for unsound environmental practices with my dollars, or c) grace my system with extra hormones and antibiotics. We do eat meat if it falls outside those parameters (eg. chicken that lived a chickeny life, cows that eat grass instead of corn, etc.). It can be hard to find and it's expensive, so we don't do it often. I also feel better since I started eating meat sparingly, so I don't really miss it.
Last year we had a great Thanksgiving which involved a not-great, but free Tofurkey from PETA. This year PETA can keep its Tofurkeys. Ew! We got over the finding-substitutes-for-meat and this-dish-is-supposed-to-have-meat-in-it phase pretty quickly. Vegetable based meat substitutes are generally not a healthy or tasty option because they are so heavily processed, and the texture is always slightly off.
This year, I am happy to say, we found a turkey. My heritage turkey is currently living in Arimo, ID. On Tuesday, just before I pick him up, he will be killed (as humanely as possible) by a turkey farmer I met this summer. My turkey has lived his antibiotic/hormone free turkey life in an open field and eaten grass and bugs to his little heart's content. He is going to taste great with gravy and mashed potatoes. Which reminds me that I still need to blog about our CSA experience, which is good because there is nothing that motivates me to blog more than food and farming.
*Reality-shattering reading list available upon request
"Just curious - are you outright vegetarians or will you be feasting upon the turkey this thanksgiving?"
So glad you asked.
I think our friend Randy summed it up best when he said, "So, you don't eat meat, but you're not vegetarians."
It all started because I love food and I love to read, which eventually led to reading about food . . . how to cook it, bake it, roast, it grill it, grow it, spice it . . . and then I got to how it is processed*. I don't have to be too explicit (nor will I, for my bacon-loving friends' sake). But, I will say that don't ever want to a) eat animals as if they are just protein delivery systems, b) vote for unsound environmental practices with my dollars, or c) grace my system with extra hormones and antibiotics. We do eat meat if it falls outside those parameters (eg. chicken that lived a chickeny life, cows that eat grass instead of corn, etc.). It can be hard to find and it's expensive, so we don't do it often. I also feel better since I started eating meat sparingly, so I don't really miss it.
Last year we had a great Thanksgiving which involved a not-great, but free Tofurkey from PETA. This year PETA can keep its Tofurkeys. Ew! We got over the finding-substitutes-for-meat and this-dish-is-supposed-to-have-meat-in-it phase pretty quickly. Vegetable based meat substitutes are generally not a healthy or tasty option because they are so heavily processed, and the texture is always slightly off.
A happy harvest celebration to all.
*Reality-shattering reading list available upon request
9.13.2009
to be, or what to be?
When they asked me what I wanted to be I said I didn’t know.
"Oh, sure you know," the photographer said.
"She wants," said Jay Cee wittily, "to be everything."
-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
"Oh, sure you know," the photographer said.
"She wants," said Jay Cee wittily, "to be everything."
-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
I'm coming up on graduation next summer. The process has been extraordinarily short compared with the undergrad experience (5 years! not to mention the two year break for a mission); I feel like I just got started. When it comes up in conversation that I am in school, most people ask what I want to be. I usually just say "educated," in order to avoid the subject.
Really, I want to be everything.
8.31.2009
butterfly in the sky
Today Reading Rainbow made its final broadcast. This fact has made me a bit wistful . . . and a bit riled.
What's next, Sesame Street?
Some research-based policy decisions in the Department of Education concluded that TV isn't an effective tool in teaching children how to read.
Really? Are you shocked?
But Reading Rainbow never focused on phonics and phonemes; its focus was more affective - encouraging kids to read because reading is fun and makes life limitless. The kids who know this already are the kids whose parents are likely to donate to PBS, and its a truth that may now be kept a secret from kids whose parents use the television as a babysitter - because they sure won't be able to watch Reading Rainbow.
". . . but you don't have to take my word for it."
Anyway, on a more personal note, my favorite episode of RR is called "How much is a million?" The featured book taught ways to conceptualize huge numbers. LeVar and his friends visit a crayon factory and show the process by which crayons are made - I wanted one of every single color of those millions of crayons so I could draw billions of pictures. Do you remember a fave episode?
What's next, Sesame Street?
Some research-based policy decisions in the Department of Education concluded that TV isn't an effective tool in teaching children how to read.
Really? Are you shocked?
But Reading Rainbow never focused on phonics and phonemes; its focus was more affective - encouraging kids to read because reading is fun and makes life limitless. The kids who know this already are the kids whose parents are likely to donate to PBS, and its a truth that may now be kept a secret from kids whose parents use the television as a babysitter - because they sure won't be able to watch Reading Rainbow.
". . . but you don't have to take my word for it."
Anyway, on a more personal note, my favorite episode of RR is called "How much is a million?" The featured book taught ways to conceptualize huge numbers. LeVar and his friends visit a crayon factory and show the process by which crayons are made - I wanted one of every single color of those millions of crayons so I could draw billions of pictures. Do you remember a fave episode?
5.26.2009
meet your meat
I just finished listening to the audio book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I must say, it was slightly more than I bargained for, but I have had another epiphany about making choices. Being part of a society or culture can be a means of simplifying our options and decision-making processes. As it happens, however, many of the best possible options have been removed from our collective schema (removal in this case powered by the food industry and certain farm subsidies). One of my self-proclaimed missions in life is to take back my options so that I can make well-informed choices. While not everyone need be a vegetarian, I think it's worth taking time to evaluate what we put in our bodies and where it comes from in order to understand its impact and take back our choices from the predominating food culture.
Our decision to quit eating CAFO meat has been baffling to some. Well, I guess the reasoning is based on the idea that where much is given, much is required. I have been given much. In the last two years, I have learned a ton about food cultures, nutrition, farming systems, sustainability, and the food industry. I have a garden behind my house, a farmer's market within walking distance, and some means by which to obtain local, vitamin-rich foods that are sustainably-grown. Because I have all of these assets, I feel I should use them well.
On the less philosophical side of things, I have enjoyed being forced to be creative with my cooking. I have learned to bake delicious fish, make pesto from home-grown ingredients, create my own dressings and sauces, produce two kinds of cheese, and rock my bread machine. I have never enjoyed preparing and eating food so much. Next, I will conquer yeast breads minus the machinery.
So, if your in the mood for a culinary concoction, drop on by and have a bite of fresh-tomato and arugula pasta or some warm bread with homemade strawberry jam (minus the high-fructose corn syrup, of course :-).
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