As I begin to engage in the course material, I am feeling relieved. Although the concepts we are exploring weigh heavy in nearly every aspect of my life, it is so often a lonely or subconscious task to carry them! Addressing the ties between politics and ecology (especially through the lens of death) feels like an opportunity to tend to personal and conceptual isolation. In the interest of forming deeper connections, I am looking forward to examining what it means to be human in the Anthropocene together.

I’ve also encountered a fair amount of sadness already in engaging in the class materials. When looking at the ecological impact of human industry, I am distressed not only because of the death and destruction itself, but also because I am deeply invested in its continuation. As a member of an ecological system I may be horrified, but as an individual I am thrilled to have access to Costco hotdogs and Amazon two-day shipping. Thanks to the Ibe piece we read, I can think of this internal conflict as a sort of “policy resistance” – I’m encountering subsystems within me which are in conflict! I’m hopeful to explore this notion more as we progress through the class. Do other people feel this way? Can this conflict serve as the basis for the kind of “creative tension” we read about in the Schley piece?

I am also excited to be guided through contemplative practices as part of our course material. While watching the film Anthropocene, I was struck by the potency of the astronauts’ photograph of Earth from space – how collectively affected people seemed to be by this unique chance to look inward from outside of their normal perspective. Observing Earth from above, we’re invited to reflect: Which systems, at what scale, do we think about? (How) can they fit together? It is exciting to think of meditation as a similar form of exploration, in which I’m able to examine my own interrelated subsystems with new perspective.

Image source: NASA,  Apollo 8 Earthrise

Works Cited

Ibe, Khalil. “Summary of Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows.” Medium, Medium, 2 May 2019, https://medium.com/@opuhasanopu/summary-of-thinking-in-systems-by-donella-meadows-b54aec0f40f8.