Author Archives: Sarina Chau

Systems Thinking, Death, and Love

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This class helped me put my actions within a larger context and taught me that death allows me to love the world more deeply. I was part of the Save the Orcas action project where my group and I created Instagram posts for their campaign. Although spending time with my group members and working together towards a common task was fun, I feel that my work did not substantially help the orcas. Even so, as activists, it’s important to celebrate the intermediate steps whenever we feel like we haven’t advanced our goals enough (Mary & Johnstone 223). While I did not feel like I helped orcas, this project taught me how to present information in consumable small bites and how to communicate in a visual manner. In this modern world where information flows at a rapid rate, to catch people’s attention I will need to communicate in an attractive and digestible manner. The result of my action project is not the end point but fits into my larger conservation journey.

One of the quotes that resonated with me the most is in In Praise of Mortality, Barrows and Macy say, “with only a short time remaining to the cities we have built… there is no other act but loving this world more deeply” (10). In the context of death, everything I have and everyone I love will be gone one day. It is because I know that painful time will come that I want to treasure and love them more deeply while I still have the time to. I don’t want to take anything for granted anymore and will treasure what I do have rather than continuously pursue something more. In the context of the Anthropocene where there is geological, atmospheric, and political disorder, perhaps this is exactly the time where I need to love the most. Because it is love that makes me treasure the falling cities at all. Love helps me look through the disorder and reminds me why I am fighting to better the world because I love this world so much in the first place. I will face death with love. I will face the incoming Anthropocene with love.

In the zombie apocalyptic video game “The Last of Us”, the two main characters admire a herd of giraffes that now roam within the fallen city. Journey’s End by Orioto.

 

The Universe is Definitely Half Full

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Contemplative practices gave me an opportunity to practice gratefulness and look at things from a new perspective. There were days when I struggled to sit quietly to participate in the practice. Those days often occurred when my back hurt and I was in physical pain. However, this struggle to concentrate made me aware that when we are in pain it becomes difficult to look past that pain to practice gratefulness or see new perspectives. Specifically, as people are suffering from flooding and heat waves to civil unrest, how can we focus on anything past that pain? I’m still struggling to answer that question myself.

Many contemplative practices allowed me the opportunity to practice gratefulness. During the practices, we often talk about putting our mind and body in the present. On October 21st, when it rained for the first time after a dry and smoky summer, I was so happy I felt like crying. The rain on my skin never felt so refreshing, and I felt silly smiling to myself as I walked through the rain to my class. Any other quarter I would have walked to class as fast as I could to avoid the rain. But because I had a chance to practice being in the present, in that moment, I had a chance to appreciate the rain.

Not only have the practices helped me habituate gratefulness, but they have helped me see things from new perspectives. During the practice where we took on three different perspectives where the world was good, where the world was bad, and where the world is as it is, I found myself not quite fitting into any of those three perspectives. However, when we watched the movie Journey of the Universe, I reflected on that practice again and concluded that “The universe is definitely half full.” This perspective derives from the thought experiment of “Is the cup half empty or half full?” Probably, the cup and the universe are both half empty and half full, but I will choose to look at its fullness rather than its emptiness. Rain after a smoky summer, the death of stars to create all the heavy elements, and this life, are all definitely a gift. To help answer my previous question of how to look beyond the pain in our lives, I think part of that answer is seeing the good despite the bad.

Louise Glück

Together We Can Face the World

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The Worm at the Core comments that a world without clear meaning is one of anxiety if “everything we believe in and everything we strive for…can be challenged” (Solomon, et al., 171) In the Anthropocene where everything from political institutions to resource security are crumbling in front of us, people are feeling especially anxious. I argue that even in a world of uncertainty, we can find stability in each other. We can be each other’s rock, so whatever we face, we face together.

Being connected to other people can help us have security in a world without definite meaning.  The authors compare two worldviews where the “rock” is a worldview of clear right and wrong that gives absolute meaning to the world. Contrastingly, the “hard place” is a worldview that accepts different perspectives but lacks psychological security when everything can be both right and wrong (285). In the Anthropocene, the ways of life we thought were correct are being challenged, and we have no choice but to be in the “hard place.” We have no choice but to begin to accept new, unfamiliar ways of life. This transition is especially hard when we are facing it alone. However, when we are together and supporting each other, we can give each other the courage we need to face this challenge head on to figure out what to do next.

This community includes non-human beings as well. The authors observe that people often assert that we “belong to the world of culture, not the world of nature” (201). Our mortal bodies can make us anxious because it reminds us of our inevitable death, but it can also be a reminder of our deep connection to other forms of life. Thus, even if the meanings we created for the world seem to be falling apart, we will always still have other connections to the earth around us. Whatever happens, the sun will still rise again, and the moon will shine just as bright.

It is scary to face an uncertain future alone, then it’s a good thing we are not alone.

Source: Henri Rousseau The Dream 1910. Caption: We belong to a world of culture AND a world of nature.

Separation is the Greatest Illusion

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Political Ecology of Death in the Anthropocene views the world with “Systems Theory.” To me, this means understanding that everything is part of something more than itself.

In “Terror Management Theory”, psychologist Sheldon Solomon argues that our fear of death leads us to strive to “become part of something less mortal…[to be] a person of value in a world of meaning” (Vedantam 2019). However, even if we do not actively pursue it, we are already part of something bigger than ourselves, something immortal. Even when we are alone on a desert island we are not alone. The fish provide minerals for us to function. Our waste provides nutrients to the worms. There is no “self.” We are already part of something valuable and meaningful.

Source: Summer Grassland by Kathryn Foster

I feel a sense of peace when I think of myself from this perspective. I imagine myself as a blade of grass in a painting. I sway with the wind alongside other blades of grass as the sun provides us energy and the air provide us food. However, one can look at this blade of grass from another perspective. It must compete for resources and lives in fear of being eaten by herbivores. Thus, it grows the deepest roots to uptake the most water and releases chemicals to defend itself.

I think it is the latter perspective that dominates our society. Solomon argues that the fear of death also leads to “self-esteem striving,” where individuals work to be “better, smarter, richer” to further make meaning of our lives (Vedantam 2019). When we do not think of ourselves are part of a greater system, we must expand ourselves to not be overtaken by others. The only value we have is our own value, and the only life we further is our own.

But even when that blade of grass is overtaken by other blades of grass or eaten by herbivores it lives on within others. We always live on.

As Professor Karen mentioned, I also think this world is amid a “transition” from a perspective of self to a perspective of the whole. In the Anthropocene where humans touch every part of the world, we have no choice but to recognize the world as connected. Perhaps as we grow more aware of this wholeness, we can create new systems of functioning to account for the impact our choices have on the world.

Work Cited:

Foster, Kathryn. Summer Grasslands. 2009, Fine Art America, https://fineartamerica.com/featured/summer-grasslands-kathryn-foster.html.

Vedantam, Shankar, host. “We’re All Gonna Die! How Fear of Death Drives Our Behavior.” Hidden Brain from NPR, 16 September 2019, https://www.npr.org/transcripts/760599683.