Thoughts on Disciplines and Food

I am so thankful that we had the discussion in class about the readings. It made me feel much more comfortable about it. When reading about science, I just got anxious and uncomfortable. So I was glad I was not alone in this uncomfortableness. Talking through the readings, made it much more accessible to me. I thought it was really interesting to also sit in the car with Matt, Ellee, and Riley on the way to the house. Hearing Ellee and Riley, as science majors, talk about how they never realized how difficult science can be for some people, made me think about my own disciplines. While my Latin American studies major doesn't seem to inaccessible being that it is an IDS major, my English major does. There are a lot of people who don't like reading books, my sister included. I don't understand how people can be like that but they are. Also people who read books don't necessarily read books in the same way I do. I read them in somewhat analytically, from my years of practice, in many ways that a scientist reads a biology article and probably dissect it. Last semester in my English capstone, Lauren, Rena and I among others, tried to master the book House of Leaves. Many of my friends, English majors and not, feared this book. But I took it head on. In the same way, I feared science classes, but some of my live for them. So I think the readings from last week, while difficult especially Kuhn and his “The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions,” I was better able to understand Stuart Kauffman's Breaking the Galilean Spell.

Michael Pollan is a pretty interesting fellow. I do have to agree that with some of the Slate review says about his book. I am actually interested into what he said considering when I tried watching the documentary Food Inc. I somewhat play the ignorant fool when eating. I am starting to eat healthier. But it is hard to be incredible detail about what goes in your food. I plan to eliminate gluten from my diet but it will be a slow and difficult process. Right now, without a car and time to research non gluten meals/food, its hard to quit it but it is on my plan to do it. His second talk reminded me a lot of certain parts of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.

I don't think that I will be able to kill my own food but I hope to one day have a garden that I grow vegetables in and eat them. I am grad he is drawing attention the fact that we may eat organic food, but where it comes is also important. Some of it is imported, which cost energy. Lyle Estill talked about similar issues in his talk. 17% of our fossil fuel goes to our food process which is outstanding, as well as we eat four tons of carbon a year.

Cara Craig was a pretty awesome girl. I love hearing her history about how she got to where she is. Her very nontraditional method through college to get to her very nontraditional career all seemed very logical but I am glad we got to share the class with her.

Struggle

So I want to say that the five minute teaching sessions make me love our IDS even more. I feel like that an important aspect of this class, like FYE is to bond as a unit and get to know each other. We learned, or attempted to learn a song, a dance, a whistle, kick our tongues and a bit of Italian. I feel this class makes sense at Guilford and part of the reason why I was drawn to this fabulous school. I grow closer and closer to the people who I share at least four hours a week with. These people bring energy and excitement to the readings and experiences that our class go through. Replace any of us with someone else, and who knows what the class would be like. It would not be the same, we all bring ourselves out through the readings. I am super excited for our trip to the beach. I feel like we will have some great bonding experiences, building doredagos and whatnot.

Thomas Kuhn seems like an interesting fellow. It seems interesting his argument about how science works. I mean it makes sense that science goes through evolutions and paradigm shifts. I am rather confused about the reading a bit. I am hoping that some of my classmates can help me better understand the readings. It went a bit over my head, unfortunately.

Again, as a man of little science, I was kind of confused by Kaufman. But I did enjoy when he said that
"Reason itself has finally led us to see the inadequacy of reason. We must therefore reunite our full humanity. We must see ourselves whole, living in a creative world we can never fully know. The Enlightenment’s reliance on reason is too narrow a view of how we flourish or flounder. It is important to the Western Hebraic-Hellenic tradition that the ancient Greeks relied preeminently on reason to seek, with Plato, the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. The ancient Jews, living with their God, relied more broadly on their full humanity."

I think that this is a very good discussion evolution of the modern thought with science and religion coming to conflict with the example of how Galileo was punished for his findings in a strict Christianity setting. Kaufman brings in an interesting point about how they should have separation and that we deserve to have a special place for the God(s). I kind of understand his points more than I did Kuhn. But not easily. I hope and will probably learn a lot from my peers on the manner.

Kiss the Messenger

In my FYE, I was fortunate to have been introduced to the wonderful world of Wendell Berry’s mind. We read most if not his entire book, Another Turn of the Crank, under the trees in the woods. It was really informative, and helped me better understand the mentality of what I would later recognize as Guilford’s values. He puts a major emphasize on staying local, like Guilford does. He sees it as a great way for to make a sustainable economy. I saw the correlation between what he was writing and how the Greenleaf functioned as a co-op. So as I was first introduced into his principles and ideas, I was being introduced to an idea of where Guilford’s principles here and lie.

I really enjoy and appreciate how passionate Berry is about the issue of localization. He is able to give the movement, though he would not enjoy me using that word, a lot of force by arguing in numerous fashions all the benefits for the cause. I do believe that buying locally and organically are great things and I am really glad that Meriwether Godsey does it but at the same time there has to be needs for some kind of the movement because not all produce is capable of growing in every region. Also, in the current supermarkets and stores, the price differential between local organic foods and the generic corporate versions is enough that most people can’t afford or don’t want to spend the money on them. As a student, I know that I do try to buy more local and organic products but there are times where it is like a three-dollar differences. So, in the goal of getting more to buy and support local, there must be a way to get the prices down. It is the same reason people go to McDonald’s, instead of a healthier alternative.

His essay about buying a computer is a very interesting one. It made me feel slightly guilty about reading his works on a computer and writing a response. Buy at least I am writing my response in daylight. Berry is a lucky man that he could not write any better or easier with a computer than with a pencil in hand. I am not gifted in this way and thus I am envious of him. My handwriting is horrible, so typing everything is always my priority. Since this essay was written in 1987 before computers became super mainstream like they are now. I wonder if he wrote an update of this essay what he would say now. Computers are everywhere and almost to avoid. Would he be able to make through life in the same way he was capable of in 1987?