WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

It’s the season of reflection, thanks, and awkward family interactions. With this election cycle, feelings might be a little stronger than last year and the whole thing has my wheels turning. It is more important than ever to talk about things and listen to what others have to say. Let’s have a discourse.

Rivers and Roads

Life lately has looked different. We are becoming indoor people.

I look back on the time we have spent on the road the last few years and am just beyond grateful for the folks who gave us a roof over our heads. I am thankful for the good weather days where we could spend time enjoying the outdoors and the bad weather days that checked our confidence levels and tested our resilience. I cannot believe we spent so many days in the wild and on the move. The map of our events (below) shows the corners of the country we have visited in the last few years. But beyond the events themselves, we spent 32% of our nights camping outside, either flying by the seat of our pants… finding dispersed sites, or at actual campgrounds, 26% of the time staying at friends’ or strangers’ (turned friends’) houses, 27% at hotels or BnBs counting vacation time, and 15% of the time with family or at the office.

Now, as I enter my home improvement era (if only I can get myself a home to work with), I foresee the joys of building a place where I can finally host people and return all the hospitality that I have been so graciously given. I also foresee the loss of time able to stumble haphazardly into little natural wonders in places I would never know to go to in everyday life.

I have been frantically recording as many things about our travels as possible. The stats, the maps, the contacts, the stories. But even if there are some things that slip through the cracks, I will always, always, hold onto the feeling of wonder at the world around me that deepened with each new encounter.

I think some people are intimidated by travel because there are so many different situations you might find yourself in. Often, travel inherently puts you in a position of discovery and newness. Travel can challenge what you thought was true. Travel can serve as a bridge between cultures and people, promote collaboration, and ignite empathy. However, not all people have the opportunity or privilege to venture far and wide. Travel is costly. While we can still share experiences through storytelling, conversation, movies, and books, the essential component for learning is curiosity. We have to want to expose ourselves to new things. Sometimes that takes courage. And courage is learned from within.

Hot Topic

GETTING EDUCATED

I have been trying to write a letter on education for a while (since Quality Education is a Sustainable Development Goal), but continually feeling underqualified to comment on the breadth of topics education touches. With this election cycle, I cannot stop thinking about how our society, our communication, our values, our families, and our identity are shaped by the education system with which we were raised. There are more strong opinions and “right” ways to educate another to count. At the same time, we can see the detriment of lack of or poor education threaded through our society.

First off—there is so much to learn. This can be overwhelming, and people put their priorities on different things—some on math and science, some on reading, some on character building, and some on faith. One thing that we forget to teach is curiosity. And we need it dearly. Because there are so many ways to learn in the day and age of the internet, it feels like people are getting more skilled at shutting out the bombardment of information at the expense of being challenged by new and different ideas. Some schools are limiting what can be read, instead of teaching how to critically think about the words on the page. The cost of that is people believe everything that they are exposed to and do not know how to hold conversations with others with an analytical, questioning, and simultaneously respectful mind.

Second, teaching is an undervalued profession. I think that it is because fundamentally, teaching does not directly make money (rather helps a person grow into a better person… and make money in the future). And much like the root of other sustainability issues, we are pretty bad at conceptualizing future value (not to mention inherent value outside of monetary value). So the further into the future that person’s money-making years are, the less those teachers are valued. College value > middle school value > preschool value. We are realizing and proving through research that those early years are just as important in a child’s life as the later years. On one hand, childcare is getting more expensive because of this, but on the other, people view school as free child care, and the funding for public school systems gets left in the dust.

Third, education itself falls into a weird liminal space between being a communal necessity and an opportunity to compete. We benefit from being in societies where people are largely well-educated because more complex ideas and systems can be created effectively. But, we also benefit from being more educated than the next person because then we are able to outcompete them for jobs, accolades, and power. By educating the masses, those in power might have a harder time keeping it because of increased competition, but that competition in general evolves society.

So what do we do? How should we think about education and the sharing of knowledge?

I believe that it is critical for people to learn to embrace both logic and change. We shut off our curious minds because we do not want to keep up with the change that is going on around us. We don’t learn about others’ perspectives and new research if it conflicts with what we previously knew as true because it is easier to close our eyes. But especially in an age when an AI result tells us that 20% of 400 is 40 (this was a real output in something that came up for me the other day), we must keep our wits about us and know how to think logically. We need to practice asking good questions and give people the opportunity to give us good answers. We also need to listen to those answers carefully and critically. We need to re-learn how to have hard conversations. It is in these conversations that we might learn how much we do not know, but it is also in conversation that we can educate.

My best wishes go to everyone going into the holiday season. But also… have those conversations.

Things You Didn’t Notice

ACTION OR INACTION

One of the biggest changes in education recently has been the removal of affirmative action by the Supreme Court. Affirmative action or the use of declaration of race in admissions, had been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The reason why affirmative action was implemented in the first place was to give students of minority backgrounds, the opportunity to attend institutions and both overcome socioeconomic life histories that had been preventative toward attendance in the first place and add to the diverse web of ideas and people at these higher education institutions that historically had been myopic, exclusionary, and culturally narrow.

Researchers are now trying to figure out what the fallout of removing affirmative action is… and that research has proven to be very difficult because very little information about how colleges made admission decisions with affirmative action is willing to be publicly shared. But, one thing we know is that colleges tend to care about inviting diverse classes to attend because that provides the foundation for a more worldly education and the grounds for more unique and challenging discussions. Affirmative action as a concept goes back to two important questions, and those are—do we, as a people, prioritize equality or equity and to what extent does race have a blanket effect on people’s lives? Equal opportunity in admissions, according to the Supreme Court, means only judging candidates by their ability, intellect (often measured by test scores), and high school performance (things that make it on their resume). Affirmative Action in admissions gives people of minority backgrounds an accounted-for reverence of their life history, both as individuals and as a part of a broader community of people.

Who is supposed to take action? Or should no one? This question about action reminds me of the dismissal of the overproduction of plastics and the responsibility that producers put on consumers. Those in power, the corporations making plastic, want to keep the status quo even when it perpetuates wider harm. We, as consumers, are told that if we care about the environment we should purchase less plastic, but then go to the grocery store and it is almost impossible to avoid it if we want to buy food. Similarly, our society tells marginalized communities, “if you want to go to college you as individuals need to work harder and compete like the rest of them”, but then the wider socioeconomic environment is ignored and the accessible educational institutions to prepare at are largely underfunded and suboptimal environments to learn. Policies like affirmative action acknowledge that there are inequalities and power dynamics to be made up for, just like policies acknowledge when the free market cannot protect people’s well-being. And sure, the goal is to not need affirmative action…eventually. But right now, do we think we have done enough to make up for our past injustices? Taking action to account for these injustices is a way to break down barriers to upward mobility and ultimately lessen racial disparities. It is action when the alternative is often nothing. And colleges know that it also helps the greater good. One of the best parts of learning is doing so in places with different ideas and backgrounds mixed together.

Refresh

• Health: Stay ahead of the flu so it does not catch up with you. Our history of the flu virus is a good reminder of why it is important to get your vaccines this year.

• Household: With stuffing season coming up, let’s be intentional about our consumption, go for quality over quantity, and share experiences over material goods. Beyond Thanksgiving, consider the material waste produced around the holidays, and don’t fall victim to the corporations that try their best to get you to buy more.

• Transportation: Why do you ride like that!? After a variety of road cycling experiences all across the country, I have built up an artillery of tactics to stay safe. It can be an incredibly intimidating experience because we all know how horrible roads (and drivers) can be for cyclists. Here is an excellent insight into how to stay safe on the road.

• Mentality: We are just a speck on the grand timeline. By looking back at how climate changed the earth’s organisms millennia ago, maybe we can better understand what will happen next… to us.

• Community: How much does it pay to be honest? Not much. This article, written in 1990, reminds us that our morality is the machine for a world where we can cooperate and trust people. The battle against operating in our own self-interest all the time seems ever relevant today.

Mouthwatering

THE SECRET BANANA

While this season is filled with so many delectable goodies, I cannot explain how comforting this very simple cornbread concept is. Whether cornbread is a staple at your holiday gatherings or you have forever been scarred by a few too many dry crusty breads that made you start coughing for a sip of water, I have a suggestion for you.

Enter a single banana.

If you combine the iconic Jiffy cornbread mix with a single old mushed up banana, voila! the perfect cornbread. I need not say more.

Ingredients:

• 1 Box Jiffy cornbread mix

• 1 old banana, mushed

Game Time

The challenge for this week is to play real games. Have real conversations. Share real experiences.

Our family falls victim to watching movies and sports together, even though we could do that when we are apart. This past week, I have been doing a ton of spring cleaning this fall and going through old games, crafts, and activities. What I have found makes me nostalgic for a time when we got up to such weird things, like writing group stories where each person adds a sentence or making stop-motion animations. This season, play games that you need a group to play with and take advantage of getting together with others. Often, libraries even rent out board games to try.

Conversation-wise, here are some fun topics to touch on. I LOVE a good controversial question that gets the juices flowing. One that came up recently is, “Do you pull your pants down with your thumbs on the inside of the waistband, or do you put your four fingers inside the waistband and push down with your thumb out?”

The last challenge is to give experiences instead of gifts this year. No one needs a new printed T-shirt that says “Rizz the Season” with a picture of santa on it. Help your people try that activity they have been dreaming of but are too hesitant to try, see their favorite up-and-coming artist play live, get that news, software, or food subscription, or learn to fix that thing that has been put off for a long time.