Hannah Feldman
Blog Post 7

I have been reading A Walk in the Woods, as you may know, and while Bill Bryson, the author, tries not to inject too many facts and science, there is quite a bit of information. However, I am not going to talk about those parts of the book in this entry.

This entry is for nature.

Nature, the natural world, is what we humans are from. Much as we may attempt to distance ourselves from nature with fiberglass and concrete, without it we would cease to exist. Sorprendo a la naturaleza (Just to add some interdisciplinary learning – sorprender is a Spanish vocab word this week!).

I marvel at nature. Have you ever stood in the middle of the woods and just looked up at the trees? It is humbling.

I had the privilege to attend an elementary school with a wonderful program – once a week each grade went out to a Girl Scout camp in the woods for the whole day. In the younger grades, we mostly just ran around and made forts and had loads of fun. However, we also learned about the plants we saw, and took time to appreciate the natural setting that was so different from our own urban environment.

I will always remember the hours I spent sitting by a creek, shaded by tall stately trees, writing poetry about the sheer beauty of my surroundings.

We need to slow down and appreciate the splendor of nature. I know I need to remember this so as to remember why I care about this topic. No issue is devoid of emotion, and every so often we all need to remind ourselves why we care.

Photo Credit: denis collette on Flickr

Hannah Feldman
Reflection 2

I am falling behind. Just putting that out there. In other news: It is beginning to feel like I have made a case already, and I’m sounding repetitive. There is so much information out there, but when I think about what to write for a post, I don’t want to write what I’m thinking, because it sounds the same as what I’ve already said.

The change agent. My one main concern in deciding on one is not preaching to the choir (Sorry for the cliché. I happen to dislike that one, but I used it anyway.). I don’t want to give my elevator pitch to, say, Appalachian Voices, because they don’t need to hear it. They said it first. So, I am thinking about perhaps tackling PECO. According to ilovemountains.org, they provide energy gained from mountaintop removal, so I would most definitely not be preaching to the devotees.

On the bright side: I am really excited to make the elevator pitch. I love commercials, and I cannot wait to make what is essentially a commercial. I want to make a video similar to the one we were shown in class about the situation in the Congo . It was direct, it presented the situation in black and white (literally and figuratively), and it was polished. It is still an awesome project.

I am in the process of reading A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson . It has many statistics and useful information that I can use in my writing (Thank you Patrick Higgins Jr ).

I will put out my next blog posts hopefully extremely soon (Where has all my self discipline gone?) and until then I will be holed up somewhere reading the book!