I went to the final lecture in the Cornell summer lecture series tonight. Titled "Sex and the Soul", it was an exploration of researcher/author Donna Freitas's book of the same name. Her interest was piqued when students in one of her classes began to complain about the "hookup culture" that they felt forced to participate in; the resulting study shows that an overwhelming majority of students want genuine relationships - but you'd never guess that by observing an American campus. Freitas also found that students are at a loss to reconcile their spirituality with their sexual attitudes and activities - hardly surprising given our cultural schizophrenia about these aspects of the human psyche.
Freitas didn't exactly miss the boat - she documented exactly what she set out to research - but I think her findings raise questions about spiritual and sexual mores in the broader American culture. Sex is in our faces every day: in song, story, art, advertising, media, and conversation, yet we never talk about the profound emotional and spiritual effect it can have on us. It's generally assumed that organized religion frowns upon sex, but we don't have a conversation about what that actually means or why that's the case...
Leaving us all to stumble around in the dark until we figure out what makes us truly happy.
The culturally sanctioned options (sleep around or get married / evangelize or keep silent about God) aren't making a majority of us happy.* Let's start a conversation about relationships and religion that is open, respectful, and that allows us to explore more fulfilling relationships.
*I mean that these dichotomies can be stifling, not that any of the options are individually unsatisfying.
23 July 2008
05 July 2008
Independence Day
Just a few small anecdotes to report this time around.
Last week I met with Dean Susan Henry of CALS, as a favor to my grandpa. He'd asked me to go introduce myself to her back in March, but I couldn't find time with the end of the semester rapidly approaching. I always had intentions to meet her, but it wasn't until after Grandpa died that I realized that it was the only thing he had ever asked me to do. Dean Henry is intelligent, kind, and quite helpful, and I'm only sorry now that I can't report back to Grandpa.
Dean Henry connected me with a professor in the Applied Economics and Management department, since I was foiled in my attempt to take a prerequisite for a prerequisite for Agricultural and Food Policy (one of this professor's classes). I'll be meeting with him in a couple weeks, and hopefully we'll come up with a plan for me to be able to take the course and/or study ag policy in other ways.
My family had a wonderful low-key family reunion yesterday for the 4th of July. For once we didn't run out of strawberries and I got to have two helpings of strawberry shortcake! We also received our copies of the book that my grandpa wrote about his brother, who turned 90 a few weeks ago. I've never heard much about my great-uncle as a young man, but it turns out that he's had as profound an impact on the community as my grandpa did, albeit in different ways. It was a joy to read, especially since it included letters from each of his children.
My summer continues to go well - it's hard to believe that it's half-over already!
Last week I met with Dean Susan Henry of CALS, as a favor to my grandpa. He'd asked me to go introduce myself to her back in March, but I couldn't find time with the end of the semester rapidly approaching. I always had intentions to meet her, but it wasn't until after Grandpa died that I realized that it was the only thing he had ever asked me to do. Dean Henry is intelligent, kind, and quite helpful, and I'm only sorry now that I can't report back to Grandpa.
Dean Henry connected me with a professor in the Applied Economics and Management department, since I was foiled in my attempt to take a prerequisite for a prerequisite for Agricultural and Food Policy (one of this professor's classes). I'll be meeting with him in a couple weeks, and hopefully we'll come up with a plan for me to be able to take the course and/or study ag policy in other ways.
My family had a wonderful low-key family reunion yesterday for the 4th of July. For once we didn't run out of strawberries and I got to have two helpings of strawberry shortcake! We also received our copies of the book that my grandpa wrote about his brother, who turned 90 a few weeks ago. I've never heard much about my great-uncle as a young man, but it turns out that he's had as profound an impact on the community as my grandpa did, albeit in different ways. It was a joy to read, especially since it included letters from each of his children.
My summer continues to go well - it's hard to believe that it's half-over already!
18 June 2008
Grandpa
Quite a bit has happened since my last post, but the most profound was the death of my grandpa on May 25. I'd just like to take a few minutes to share his impact on my life.
I was really lucky to grow up in the same community as my grandpa. There can be two sides to the part of small-town life where everybody knows you and your family - it can be stifling for some, but for me it's made me feel more connected. I feel like my roots run deep here, and I love that. My grandpa was influential on many levels - in government, education (the local school district as well as Cornell), agriculture - the list goes on. His greatest influence, however, was his way of drawing people in.
Grandpa knew how to make everybody he met feel special. He'd ask about their lives, their families, what they were concerned about, what they'd accomplished - and somehow he would remember a large percentage of that information. He knew what was on people's minds, and he had a way of making connections and getting things done.
I'm constantly running into people who knew him in some capacity, and the response is always positive, even reverent. I'm extraordinarily proud to be one of his grandchildren, and I'm equally glad that my relationship to him is as a grandchild. It's easy enough to learn about what the man did in his public life, but only his grandchildren got to go fishing with him, or for a walk around the "block", or got to ride in that bright turquoise pickup with vinyl seats that got really really hot and sticky in the summer, or had him watching from the sidelines at the county fair each summer, always with a proud smile on his face. I'll miss him.
I was really lucky to grow up in the same community as my grandpa. There can be two sides to the part of small-town life where everybody knows you and your family - it can be stifling for some, but for me it's made me feel more connected. I feel like my roots run deep here, and I love that. My grandpa was influential on many levels - in government, education (the local school district as well as Cornell), agriculture - the list goes on. His greatest influence, however, was his way of drawing people in.
Grandpa knew how to make everybody he met feel special. He'd ask about their lives, their families, what they were concerned about, what they'd accomplished - and somehow he would remember a large percentage of that information. He knew what was on people's minds, and he had a way of making connections and getting things done.
I'm constantly running into people who knew him in some capacity, and the response is always positive, even reverent. I'm extraordinarily proud to be one of his grandchildren, and I'm equally glad that my relationship to him is as a grandchild. It's easy enough to learn about what the man did in his public life, but only his grandchildren got to go fishing with him, or for a walk around the "block", or got to ride in that bright turquoise pickup with vinyl seats that got really really hot and sticky in the summer, or had him watching from the sidelines at the county fair each summer, always with a proud smile on his face. I'll miss him.
22 May 2008
It's Always Something
Ok, semester the first: finished! When it came right down to it, I didn't want it to be done. It went too quickly! I had just gotten into the routine of classes and homework and was just becoming secure in my new friendships... and now it's summer, with a new routine and many of my friends elsewhere until next semester. Go figure.
I do think that my first CU semester went rather well. ANSCI 160: Animal Agriculture and Society built on my 4-H farm-girl background and was amazingly in-depth for a survey course. Then again, it was the first semester for the course, and there were five professors teaching it, and it was really hard to know what to study for the quizzes because each lecture was so in-depth... I guess it's a good thing I'm pretty good at dealing with chaos! Genetics started out in familiar territory (Punnet Squares, anyone?) and quickly zoomed off into a strange universe of math with letters and too many variables represented by "r"... but oddly enough, by the time I was done studying for the last test, it actually made some sort of sense. Thank goodness for crib sheets... otherwise I never would have remembered all those formulas! The AgSci Seminar would have been even better if I'd had time to hang around and talk to people afterward, but I really enjoyed the exposure we got to a wide variety of ag issues... everything from small farms to federal policy. The talks that stick out in my head are the CAFO planner, the organic sheep dairy farmers, the lobbyist, the weed specialist, and the food safety professor. Speaking of food, FDSCI 150: Food Choices and Issues initially sounded like a recap of the nutrition course I took last semester, but turned out to be so much more. I know more than I ever did - maybe more than I wanted to - about packaging and preservation methods. I could stand to know a bit more about the Green Revolution and genetically engineered food, but there will be other courses... assuming I have time. COMM 285: Communication in the Life Sciences was absolutely fascinating. I'm not sure I can even adequately summarize that class yet, but I'll give it a go. I suppose the take-home message was that communication is essential to science, science communication happens in many different ways, and evaluating science communication requires a certain level of scientific literacy. I already feel that this course will be majorly influential for me, but exactly how remains to be seen. Last but by no means least, NTRES 322: Global Ecology and Management taught me oh so much about climate change, methods for finding out about past climate change, gave me mental tools for considering the impacts of future changes... and I'm keeping the book. The prof (who is insane and brilliant) warned us that it was dry and boring, but whenever I was reading it, I very often had to set it down for a minute to exclaim over something novel or interesting. For once I didn't care about the style at all - the information was too intriguing!
I was also involved with EARS training this semester. EARS stands for Empathy, Assistance, and Referral Services, and it's a peer-run counseling center on campus. I took the first semester of counselor training and definitely enjoyed it. It's a way of listening and helping people that, admittedly, doesn't come naturally to me. I'm used to "fixing" problems and dispensing advice, not guiding people to find their own solutions... but I've gained a deep appreciation for the latter approach and will try to practice it more often. Hopefully it will help that I now wish that all my friends knew it so they could use it on me...
I maintained a pretty good balance between school and play this semester, but I definitely have to work on making exercise a priority. That was probably my major failing this semester, and it definitely showed. I got sick a couple times (in contrast, I only got sick three times in the year that I worked in the ER, and two of those times were in the first month) and nearly passed out from dehydration once when I actually did go running. Oops. Anybody interested in being my workout buddy next semester?
This summer I'm looking forward to an online class (TC3's ECON 120: Principles of Micro - it's a prerequisite for a fall class), my internship, and waiting tables at Moosewood. Next semester I'll have 19 credits - more than I've ever taken. Stay tuned...
I do think that my first CU semester went rather well. ANSCI 160: Animal Agriculture and Society built on my 4-H farm-girl background and was amazingly in-depth for a survey course. Then again, it was the first semester for the course, and there were five professors teaching it, and it was really hard to know what to study for the quizzes because each lecture was so in-depth... I guess it's a good thing I'm pretty good at dealing with chaos! Genetics started out in familiar territory (Punnet Squares, anyone?) and quickly zoomed off into a strange universe of math with letters and too many variables represented by "r"... but oddly enough, by the time I was done studying for the last test, it actually made some sort of sense. Thank goodness for crib sheets... otherwise I never would have remembered all those formulas! The AgSci Seminar would have been even better if I'd had time to hang around and talk to people afterward, but I really enjoyed the exposure we got to a wide variety of ag issues... everything from small farms to federal policy. The talks that stick out in my head are the CAFO planner, the organic sheep dairy farmers, the lobbyist, the weed specialist, and the food safety professor. Speaking of food, FDSCI 150: Food Choices and Issues initially sounded like a recap of the nutrition course I took last semester, but turned out to be so much more. I know more than I ever did - maybe more than I wanted to - about packaging and preservation methods. I could stand to know a bit more about the Green Revolution and genetically engineered food, but there will be other courses... assuming I have time. COMM 285: Communication in the Life Sciences was absolutely fascinating. I'm not sure I can even adequately summarize that class yet, but I'll give it a go. I suppose the take-home message was that communication is essential to science, science communication happens in many different ways, and evaluating science communication requires a certain level of scientific literacy. I already feel that this course will be majorly influential for me, but exactly how remains to be seen. Last but by no means least, NTRES 322: Global Ecology and Management taught me oh so much about climate change, methods for finding out about past climate change, gave me mental tools for considering the impacts of future changes... and I'm keeping the book. The prof (who is insane and brilliant) warned us that it was dry and boring, but whenever I was reading it, I very often had to set it down for a minute to exclaim over something novel or interesting. For once I didn't care about the style at all - the information was too intriguing!
I was also involved with EARS training this semester. EARS stands for Empathy, Assistance, and Referral Services, and it's a peer-run counseling center on campus. I took the first semester of counselor training and definitely enjoyed it. It's a way of listening and helping people that, admittedly, doesn't come naturally to me. I'm used to "fixing" problems and dispensing advice, not guiding people to find their own solutions... but I've gained a deep appreciation for the latter approach and will try to practice it more often. Hopefully it will help that I now wish that all my friends knew it so they could use it on me...
I maintained a pretty good balance between school and play this semester, but I definitely have to work on making exercise a priority. That was probably my major failing this semester, and it definitely showed. I got sick a couple times (in contrast, I only got sick three times in the year that I worked in the ER, and two of those times were in the first month) and nearly passed out from dehydration once when I actually did go running. Oops. Anybody interested in being my workout buddy next semester?
This summer I'm looking forward to an online class (TC3's ECON 120: Principles of Micro - it's a prerequisite for a fall class), my internship, and waiting tables at Moosewood. Next semester I'll have 19 credits - more than I've ever taken. Stay tuned...
26 April 2008
Journey
On the "Big Red Journey" front, the coming week is the last week of classes. My first semester is, astonishingly, almost over! I'll compose a review of it at some point in the near future, but right now, as happens frequently, I find myself contemplating the bigger picture.
Life is so fragile and so tenacious. It's almost ridiculously easy to destroy any single organism, or any given population, but life continues to survive and evolve and find new ways to keep going. Life is an overwhelming force.
Human nature has an amazing capacity for the beautiful and good, and yet so often we make mistakes, our efforts fall short, we're overcome by fear, or we're hurt by someone else. Accidents and malicious acts alike cause grief. I go back and forth about whether or not I think evil actually exists as such, or whether evil behavior has roots in fear and pain.
I'm getting closer to being able to do work every single day that will help change the world for the better. I'm confident that I can and will make a difference, and that my efforts will combine with those made by others to make human life more sustainable.
But I know that I'll make mistakes and suffer failures, too. Today my sense of my human foibles is intense, and I realize that I can try my very best and sometimes, that won't be enough. I'll go looking for love in the wrong places, I'll attach myself to a solution that turns out to be impractical, I'll inadvertently do or say something that will cause pain to somebody else, I'll misunderstand, I'll become afraid and forget that courage is the belief that there are things more important than fear. On some days, my best efforts will slip through my fingers like water. I will mess up, and there is nothing I can do about that except try to clean up the mess as best as I can.
The pain of limitations is something we all have to deal with, and I can't help but wonder if, on a metaphysical level, we're infinite beings who have been molded in finite shells and placed in a finite world. I have no idea what end would be served by this, but it makes sense to me when I consider that most of what we humans want is good - food, clothing, shelter, community, freedom, love - and that our greatest mistakes are often made in pursuit of these desires.
The only conclusion I can come to is that I have to try in good faith and accept that some of my attempts will fail. There's a sort of poignant beauty in that realization that somehow lets me believe that things will be ok - we will still have love and compassion even if the world is crashing down around our heads.
Life is so fragile and so tenacious. It's almost ridiculously easy to destroy any single organism, or any given population, but life continues to survive and evolve and find new ways to keep going. Life is an overwhelming force.
Human nature has an amazing capacity for the beautiful and good, and yet so often we make mistakes, our efforts fall short, we're overcome by fear, or we're hurt by someone else. Accidents and malicious acts alike cause grief. I go back and forth about whether or not I think evil actually exists as such, or whether evil behavior has roots in fear and pain.
I'm getting closer to being able to do work every single day that will help change the world for the better. I'm confident that I can and will make a difference, and that my efforts will combine with those made by others to make human life more sustainable.
But I know that I'll make mistakes and suffer failures, too. Today my sense of my human foibles is intense, and I realize that I can try my very best and sometimes, that won't be enough. I'll go looking for love in the wrong places, I'll attach myself to a solution that turns out to be impractical, I'll inadvertently do or say something that will cause pain to somebody else, I'll misunderstand, I'll become afraid and forget that courage is the belief that there are things more important than fear. On some days, my best efforts will slip through my fingers like water. I will mess up, and there is nothing I can do about that except try to clean up the mess as best as I can.
The pain of limitations is something we all have to deal with, and I can't help but wonder if, on a metaphysical level, we're infinite beings who have been molded in finite shells and placed in a finite world. I have no idea what end would be served by this, but it makes sense to me when I consider that most of what we humans want is good - food, clothing, shelter, community, freedom, love - and that our greatest mistakes are often made in pursuit of these desires.
The only conclusion I can come to is that I have to try in good faith and accept that some of my attempts will fail. There's a sort of poignant beauty in that realization that somehow lets me believe that things will be ok - we will still have love and compassion even if the world is crashing down around our heads.
18 April 2008
Right to Smoke? Not in My Air!
Ok folks, I have a proposal: ban smoking in public.
I've mentioned this to a few people, most of whom have professed to think my idea silly at best, un-American at worst. "But people have a right to smoke, a right to do whatever they want to their bodies," they tell me.
I agree completely. It's none of my business if people want to kill themselves slowly with their cancer sticks. We all know that smoking is horrible for your health and disgusting besides, but if that's not enough of a deterrent for some people, so be it. (Just don't try to get me to pay for the long-term health care costs... but that's a different story.)
I don't object to the smoke that winds up in a smoker's lungs. What I object to is the smoke from a smoker's cigarette or exhalation that winds up in my lungs. I have made the choice to not smoke, but any smoker I encounter is negating my right to make that choice.
It's commonly said that "your right to throw a punch ends at my nose", meaning that the rights of an individual extend up to but not beyond the point where exercising those rights would infringe upon the rights of another individual. Let me phrase this another way: your right to smoke a cigarette ends at my air supply. It's just plain rude to force nonsmokers to breathe your smoke.
I'm not the only one to come up with this idea. As the Ithaca Journal article (see post title for link) reports, the Common Council of Ithaca is considering a ban on smoking for the Commons and other public places around the city. As Annie Tegen, of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, is quoted as saying, "the right to breathe trumps the right to smoke."
In another article, an Ithaca College sophomore who is a smoker said that she would find going downtown to be annoying if the ban were enacted, because she wouldn't be able to smoke wherever she wanted. How's that for irony? I already find going downtown annoying because I'm not able to breathe wherever I go!
It's this simple: breathing is a need; smoking is a choice. Nobody can control where cigarette smoke drifts. Most people don't want to breathe it, and they shouldn't be forced to against their will. Smoke-free laws are going into effect all over the nation - let's hope Ithaca gets on that bandwagon!
EDIT: One more link: Tobacco Free Tompkins.
I've mentioned this to a few people, most of whom have professed to think my idea silly at best, un-American at worst. "But people have a right to smoke, a right to do whatever they want to their bodies," they tell me.
I agree completely. It's none of my business if people want to kill themselves slowly with their cancer sticks. We all know that smoking is horrible for your health and disgusting besides, but if that's not enough of a deterrent for some people, so be it. (Just don't try to get me to pay for the long-term health care costs... but that's a different story.)
I don't object to the smoke that winds up in a smoker's lungs. What I object to is the smoke from a smoker's cigarette or exhalation that winds up in my lungs. I have made the choice to not smoke, but any smoker I encounter is negating my right to make that choice.
It's commonly said that "your right to throw a punch ends at my nose", meaning that the rights of an individual extend up to but not beyond the point where exercising those rights would infringe upon the rights of another individual. Let me phrase this another way: your right to smoke a cigarette ends at my air supply. It's just plain rude to force nonsmokers to breathe your smoke.
I'm not the only one to come up with this idea. As the Ithaca Journal article (see post title for link) reports, the Common Council of Ithaca is considering a ban on smoking for the Commons and other public places around the city. As Annie Tegen, of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, is quoted as saying, "the right to breathe trumps the right to smoke."
In another article, an Ithaca College sophomore who is a smoker said that she would find going downtown to be annoying if the ban were enacted, because she wouldn't be able to smoke wherever she wanted. How's that for irony? I already find going downtown annoying because I'm not able to breathe wherever I go!
It's this simple: breathing is a need; smoking is a choice. Nobody can control where cigarette smoke drifts. Most people don't want to breathe it, and they shouldn't be forced to against their will. Smoke-free laws are going into effect all over the nation - let's hope Ithaca gets on that bandwagon!
EDIT: One more link: Tobacco Free Tompkins.
15 April 2008
Mike Huckabee Comes to Cornell
Former Arkansas governor and US Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee spoke to the Cornell community tonight; his talk was entitled "In God We Trust: The Role of Faith in Politics".
I rarely pay much attention to politics. The obsession with power, electability, and the party line is a real-turn off, and I often bemoan the dearth of statesmen, as opposed to politicians. I went into this lecture knowing next to nothing about Mr. Huckabee, and came out feeling refreshed and encouraged.
Mr. Huckabee's opinions are based on sound, carefully considered logic and independent thought. I don't agree with him on every little detail, but it's clear that he has made every effort to educate himself and refuses to take the party line (or any other line) out of convenience. I found this not only eminently respectable but also a great example of true conservatism.
What do I mean by true conservatism? There's a lot of confusion over that word. Supposedly, conservatives are proponents of small government and personal responsibility (though it's true that many people who use the conservative label don't actually promote that view). Mr. Huckabee made a very important point, one which I hadn't come to as of yet on my own: our willingness as individuals to take responsibility for our lives is intimately related to the degree of government we must have. Cutting back government and slashing taxes may not be the best choice if more chaos is the result. I'm going to take that concept one step further and suggest that our success as a nation, a society, and a culture depends on how we treat each other. Laws, lawsuits, and even the Constitution can never do as much to protect us as patience, respect, and open communication.
An important caveat is that personal responsibility requires a great deal more in the way of initial effort by each individual. It takes a strong mind to constantly challenge oneself with new ideas and opinions, to try to make sound decisions about all aspects of life, and to try to contribute positively to the world. I firmly believe, however, that everyone is capable of this effort. There are any number of reasons why people might not take responsibility for themselves, but it's largely not because they lack the capacity. I'm not sure what the best way to encourage personal responsibility is, though. Maybe it's as simple as trying to live up to that ideal myself.
I rarely pay much attention to politics. The obsession with power, electability, and the party line is a real-turn off, and I often bemoan the dearth of statesmen, as opposed to politicians. I went into this lecture knowing next to nothing about Mr. Huckabee, and came out feeling refreshed and encouraged.
Mr. Huckabee's opinions are based on sound, carefully considered logic and independent thought. I don't agree with him on every little detail, but it's clear that he has made every effort to educate himself and refuses to take the party line (or any other line) out of convenience. I found this not only eminently respectable but also a great example of true conservatism.
What do I mean by true conservatism? There's a lot of confusion over that word. Supposedly, conservatives are proponents of small government and personal responsibility (though it's true that many people who use the conservative label don't actually promote that view). Mr. Huckabee made a very important point, one which I hadn't come to as of yet on my own: our willingness as individuals to take responsibility for our lives is intimately related to the degree of government we must have. Cutting back government and slashing taxes may not be the best choice if more chaos is the result. I'm going to take that concept one step further and suggest that our success as a nation, a society, and a culture depends on how we treat each other. Laws, lawsuits, and even the Constitution can never do as much to protect us as patience, respect, and open communication.
An important caveat is that personal responsibility requires a great deal more in the way of initial effort by each individual. It takes a strong mind to constantly challenge oneself with new ideas and opinions, to try to make sound decisions about all aspects of life, and to try to contribute positively to the world. I firmly believe, however, that everyone is capable of this effort. There are any number of reasons why people might not take responsibility for themselves, but it's largely not because they lack the capacity. I'm not sure what the best way to encourage personal responsibility is, though. Maybe it's as simple as trying to live up to that ideal myself.
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