Towards Day 26 (Tues, Dec. 11) : Barometer--using our own words

weather prediction: 44 degrees,  12 mph wind,  10% chance of precipitation, partly cloudy

Cahier will try to schedule us in the London Room--stay tuned for details (thanks!)

I. coursekeeping
--I added another question to the portfolio, to ask you to reflect on your
outside experiences, in your site sits and on our field trips
--any further questions about end-of-semester expectations?
--any questions about Wednesday's teach-in? any technological needs?
(come early to set up, if you have some....)
--Rochelle on animal sacrifice?

II. your final site sits--a sad theme?
Zoe: rain/flowers/us--who needs who more?
Shengjia: My mind is not well-trimmed but muddy and clustering...chaos of different views I can ponder on for years
Cahier: leaves gone, can see/be seen with remarkable clarity
wanhong: wonderland
mtran: trees & grass do not look very “happy.”
Barbara: slipped/fell in the mud (SarahC)
Rochelle: everything was damp and sad
Susan: happy/not?
CMJ: on being homesick (SarahC)
SaraL: resigned to not being objective and rational (SarahC)
SarahC: particular hawk/geese/duck personages
alex: time passing
(Hannah, mbackus?)

III. reading one another's papers on-line:
anything to say about that experience? on receiving comments/not?
Zoe's getting lost (CMJ, Sarah C)
cf. mbackus' getting lost (Zoe, mtran....)
Shengjia's questioning/wondering/learning (Rochelle)

alex's appeal to h.s. English teacher re: writing in a personal voice (wanhong)
cf. wanhong on the beauty of subjectivity (Barbara)

mtran on eco-happiness (wanhong)
SarahC on integrating spirit into academia (Zoe)
Hannah on cognitive/intellectual/physical intimacies (mtran)
Barbara on studying our "home"
Rochelle on abandoning despair
CMJ's call to people of the world!
SaraL on throwing away typical environmentalist assumptions (wanhong, Zoe)
Susan about animals' emotions on the internet

Cahier's facebook postings for haverbro, re: ecofeminism (Shengjia...)
(no responses from alex, Cahier, Hannah, mbackus,  SaraL, Susan...?)


IV. playing barometer w/ Coetzee's ideas, and yours (another form of commenting….!)

quotes adapted from The Lives of Animals:
Marjorie Garber: "we thought John Coetzee was talking about animals...all along he was really asking, 'What is the value of literature?'"
Peter Singer: different capacities are relevant to the wrongness of killing
Wendy Doniger: one can feel empathetically for animals--and kill and eat them
Barbara Smuts: real life encounters with animals are more important than developing the poetic imagination

Zoe (via CMJ AND Cahier!): "Colleges do not permit students to get lost for a time because student’s studies would suffer…."
(via Susan): "Getting lost is necessary for self-reflection."
(via Hannah): "Each person needs to eventually become lost and search for who they really are."
(via mbackus): Bryn Mawr is "a place in which women can find themselves."

Rochelle (via mtran AND Shengjia): "the best tool [for solving ecological problems] is the belief that one has the power to solve the problem."

Susan (via alex): "...the reason we feel something when we look at funny cats or cows or dogs is [not] because we are seeing only ourselves....we have to recognize that animals express emotions, even if it is not in the way that we do."
CMJ (via SarahC): "It is impossible to distance oneself from nature in an attempt to be objective, because everyone and everything has a role to play in the theater of the world."
alex (via Barbara): "Although most college essays will generally be written in the third person narrative, teaching students to locate their own voice at the high school level sets a foundation of understanding that will translate to college."

SaraL (via Zoe): "If you do not want to be 'in nature'... you are not obliged to do so." 

mtran (via wanhong): "Happiness in nature is gentle and consistent."

question arising from our "debate" last week: can vegetarians and meat-eaters (or anyone w/ decidedly opposed views) actually have dialogue? Or are the divisions so deep that common academic training, common culture, or even familial ties can not bridge the gap?

(Barbara, Rochelle, SaraL?)

V. Stop @ 11:30 to do college evaluations (who will deliver these to English House?)