the nature of college | by james farrell

7/22/2019 The Nature of College | by James Farrell

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The Nature of College

James J. Farrell

How a New Understanding

of Campus Life Can Change the World


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2010, ex by James J. Farrell

All righs reserved. Excep for brief quoaions in criical aricles or reviews, no par

of his book may be reproduced in any manner wihou prior writen permission

from he publisher: Milkweed Ediions, 1011 Washingon Avenue ouh, uie 300,

Minneapolis, Minnesoa 55415.

(800) 520-6455

www.milkweed.org

Published 2010 by Milkweed Ediions

Prined in Canada by Friesens Corporaion

Cover Design & Ar Direcion: onky Designs

Cover Phoography: Ward Yoshimoo

Auhor phoo couresy of . Olaf College

nerior design by Wendy Holdman

nerior illusraions by Jens Matson

Te ex of his book is se in Arno Pro.10 11 12 13 14 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition

Please urn o he back of his book for a lis of he susaining funders of Milkweed

Ediions.

Library of Congress Caaloging-in-Publicaion Daa

Farrell, James J.

Te naure of college / James J. Farrell.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-57131-322-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-57131-819-0 (e-book)

1. College sudensUnied aesConduc of life. 2. Educaion, Higher

Aims and objecivesUnied aes. 3. Universiies and collegesUnied aes.

. ile.

L3605.F34 2010

378.73dc222010031777

Tis book is prined on acid-free paper.


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13

1

Waking Up to Nature

o see what is in ont o ones nose needs a constant struggle.

George Orwell, In Front o Your Nose

Te obscure we see eventually. Te completely obvious, it seems,takes longer.

Edward R. Murrow, as quoted in Mad about Physics (2001),by Christopher Jargodzki

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Alhough some wai unil aernoon, mos college sudens wake up earlyin he morning o he maddening sound o an alarm clock. As he con-rapion beeps or buzzes, Joe College reaches ou o his slumber, his hesnooze buton, rolls over, and goes back o sleep. Tis sequence replaysrepeaedly unil a las he hrows back he blankes and ges ou o bed.Hes lae again so hell have o hurry i he wans breakas beore class.

Sumbling oward he bahroom, Joe begins a morning rouine so wellchoreographed he should ge a credi in dance or is awless execuion:

He seps up o he urinal, relieves himsel, ushes, shufes o he sink,pumps he soap, washes his hands, dries hem on a paper owel, aimsa adeaway sho oward he wasebaske, and reaches or his oileries.Grossed ou by his morning breah, he grabs oohbrush and oohpase,urns on he waer, wes he brush, spreads pase on he brisles, and be-gins o brush his eeh. In he mirror, his amiliar ace seems o be spor-ing a caveman wig, so oday is a shower day, or a leas a ha day. Spitingin he sink, Joe reels oward he showers and he dance coninues.

Joes siser, meanwhile, ollows a relaed rouine. She checks her e-mail,scans he news eed on Facebook, clicks he syllabus or EnvironmenalSudies 11 o make sure she has he reading righ, pulls up her Googlecalendar o conrm odays aciviies, and heads or he showers. Shelahers up, shampoos her hair, rinses wih condiioner, shaves, and en-joys a ew addiional minues o ho, seamy waer beore she concludes.


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14 Waking Up to Nature

oweling o, shes ready o brush and blow-dry her hair, and maybeapply a litle makeup.

Boh sudens glance ou he window o gauge he weaher. Tey can

really be sure how i migh eel ou here because heyre moving beweenrooms ha are heaed or cooled o emperaures in he seveny-degreerange. Naure is burning or blowing o creae his comor zone, buhey don noice because has jus naural. So, naurally, hey checkweaher.com and head or he close wih odays orecas in mind.

Like oher college sudens, and mos Americans, Jo and Joe Collegeare pracicing wha im Clydesdale calls he disengaged pragmaismo everyday lie, ocusing on he asks a hand and he day ahead, bu nohe meaning behind hem. So ar, he only ime heyve noiced naurewas in he weaher repor. Waking up a college, heyre waking up innaure, bu hey haven noiced ha ye. In his chaper, hereore, wellry o wake hem up to he naure o heir mornings as well.

Alarming: The Cultural Work o Clocks

I can be alarming o hink deeply abou an alarm clock. Normally col-lege sudens noice i jus wice a day, seting i a nigh and hearing i,regreully, in he morning. Bu he ime i ells ransorms he wholeday, and he world.

Mos Americans are obsessed wih ime, as our language suggess:Were saving ime or spending i, marking ime or killing i. We have reeime on he weekendswhich seems o sugges ha we have slave imemos o he week. Many o us even eel like were doing ime, caugh in a

prison o work and obligaions. Whaever we call i, however, all o ourimes are srucured by clock ime, he social consrucion o weeks anddays and hours and minues ha shape our appoinmen books and ourlives. Like many o our echnical marvels, clocks and waches are ma-chines ha do he work o social consrucion, convering naure inoculure, and in his case, naures ime ino human ime.

Hisorically, human beings adjused heir lie cycles o he rhyhmso day and nigh, and slep unil hey were resed or unil hey were

disurbedoen by he call o naure. Is a naural ac ha humanbeings need sleep, and ha animals, including humans, have circadianrhyhmscycles o brain-wave aciviy, core body emperaure swings,hormone producion, and cell regeneraion schedulesha atune hebody o he roaions o he plane. In he modern world, however,he bodys circadian rhyhms proved oo imprecise or he demands o


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Waking Up to Nature 15

capialism: People who ollowed naural rhyhms migh be lae or heacory work o he indusrial revoluion. So he body had o be brokeno he discipline o mechanical ime.4

As early as he 183s, Alexis de ocqueville observed ha Americanswere obsessed wih ime, always busy wih he consuming passions oindividualism: Te inhabian o he Unied Saes, he observed, a-aches himsel o he goods o his world as i he were assured o nodying, and he rushes so precipiaely o grasp hose ha pass wihin hisreach ha one would say he ears a each insan he will cease o livebeore he has enjoyed hem. He grasps hem all bu wihou cluchinghem, and he soon allows hem o escape rom his hands so as o runaer new enjoymens. Tis culure, in which rush hour migh be anyhour o he day, has survived and hrived in America, leading o a so-ciey plagued by wha sociologiss call ime povery. In a culure oime povery, we don have enough ime or wha really maters o us,because were oo busy doing oher hings. Even a college, which is de-signed o be an inerval o slow ime in lie, many sudens don makeime or meaningul work or or reecion abou heir hopes and dreamsbecause heres oo much o do. Our lack o ime has environmen-al impacs because i drives us o convenience, where we oen accepresource-inensive soluions o our ime-managemen problems. We be-lieve in as ood, or example, because we lead as lives, circumscribedby he seconds o he clock.5

An alarm clock ells us o ge up and ge o work on ime, bu in ocus-ing our atenion on odays ime i marginalizes oher imporan imeso our lives, like yeserday or omorrow. Yeserday, he clock presumes, is

jus hisory, and omorrow migh as well be science cion. Clock ime isalso jus human ime. I helps us ge places on ime, bu i keeps us romconsidering naural ime anddepending on our beliessupernauralime. By ocusing our atenion on he personal presen, i keeps us romoher emporal perspecives, perhaps unil is lierally oo lae.

Past Time

Despie heir enrollmen a an educaional insiuion designed o passon culural radiions rom he pas o he uure, Joe and Jo College are nogenerally good a hinking in ime. Mos o us, in ac, don rememberiwe ever learnedhe environmenal hisory ha would help us makesense o he presen, so we don know why we ac he way we do.We don undersand why environmenal problems have developed. We


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don know abou environmenal successes or hisories o hope. Playingby he rules o American presenism, we don ake ime o hink abouhe pasunless, o course, were suck in a hisory course.

Wheher we acknowledge i or no, however, we live in hisory, anddead men rule our lives. We inhabi he insiuions dead men creaed andhe buildings hey ereced. We learn rom books hey wroe and ideas heydevised. Daily, we use he echnologies hey invenedamusing ourselvesamong he ghoss o Tomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Philo Farnsworh.Mos imporanly, we live in he world ha hey developed, despoiled,or proeced. When Columbus discovered America, he came in wind-powered sailing ships, and encounered people who didn use ossil uels.Bu we use los o ossil uels, because dead men laer discovered coal andoil and exploied hem o make our lives easier and more ecien. On heoher hand, dead men and women also helped o creae a sublime sysemo American naional parks, and legislaive proecions or wilderness andhe environmen. Te pas is always alive in our presen, bu, because heclock calls us o our nex appoinmen, we rush righ pas i.

Future Time

American presenism also keeps us rom a careul consideraion o heuure. College is, o course, a preparaion or wha comes nex, anddespie he immediae demands o our clocks and wachescollegesudens worry abou he uure a lo. Bu ha uure is usually indi-vidual and insrumenal: Were more concerned abou preparaion orgraduae school or a career han abou he qualiy o our communiies

or he ae o he Earh. Like oher Americans, college sudens arenvery skilled a imagining he long uure, or making collecive plans orhe world hey wan o live in as aduls, parners, parens, and ciizens.Mos Americans end no o be very mindul o uure generaions, andwhen we are, we oen ask, as devou uiliarians do, Wha has he u-ure ever done or us? Tis shorsighedness makes i dicul, i noimpossible, o conron sysemic issues like urban planning, povery,environmenal degradaion, or global weirding. Tas why, as Rober

Paehlke says, ime horizon may be he mos imporan disincion be-ween environmenaliss and ohers.As a consequence, we don hink much abou he uure as some-

hing we creae oday, boh in our aciviy and our inaciviy. We donnoice ha we are making hisory wih each o our everyday acions. Asa resul, we collecively creae a uure ha ew o us really wan o live


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in. Like i or no, wha we do eiher reinorces ideas and insiuionsoday, or ransorms hem or omorrow. When we approach our sud-ies as ools or civic engagemen, we learn how o change he world.

When we explore possibiliies or environmenal responsibiliy in ourown lives, we provide possibiliies or uure ciizens, and so we creaea uure wih our examples as a par o is usable pas. Alernaely, whenwe setle or a presen so sressul or unpleasan ha i drives us o waseime wih escapis V, we creae a uure wih more commercials andcommercialism and couch poaoes, reinorcing images o people andsociey ha oen conradic our deepes values.

Natures Time

Even i our alarm clocks locaed us in a sream o hisorical coninuiy,hey sill wouldn connec us o biological or ecological ime. Clocksignore naures imehe slow ime o geology and evoluion, he longcycles o prairies and oress and oceans. When we plan our lives onlyby clock ime, we orge naures rhyhms and begin o assume ha ourime is he only ime. Even hough mos naural rhyhms are cyclical,Americans believe in linear progress wih pracically ineviable humanimprovemen. In naures ime, is progress when he sun comes up eachmorning, and progress again when i goes down; progress when springsprous every year, and once again when brigh colors announce all. Innaures ime, eciency isn measured by speed, bu by susainabiliyand regeneraionhe abiliy o exend he exravagan generosiy olie o anoher generaion. When he human ime line mees naures

ime circle, however, i increasingly resuls in exincions, which are li-erally killing ime or oher species.In naures ime, minues and seconds don mean much. We hink

were on ime when we arrive a he appoined hour, bu naure mighhink oherwise. I akes naure abou ve hundred years o make oneinch o opsoil, so when we live in a way ha deplees soil aser han ha(and we do), we are no on ime, no mater how as or producive wemigh be. When we live in a way ha hreaens he ecosysem services

ha our descendans will need, were more ou o ime han on ime.

Sacred Time

Wheher or no gods exis, people and culures eel a supernaural rela-ionship o he naural world. I may be Allah or Yahweh, he Corn Moher


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Natures Free Lunch: Ecosystem Services

Provisioning Making stuf so people can make do.Sunshine Natures urnace and lighting systemgood or tanning,

but also or photosynthesis: the conversion o sunbeams

to ood.

Plants Natures alchemists, converting sunshine to ood (and

spices and pharmaceuticals) by a process o photosynthesis,

which also releases oxygena substance that is handy or

our breathing. They also generate other useul materials

(cotton, wood, etc.) and energy.

Animals Natures meatpacking plants, converting plantssome owhich humans cant digestinto protein.

Rain, snow, etc. Natures cleanser, sot drink, and liquid recreationalso

habitat or aquatic plants and animals, and a necessity or

land-based ora and auna, too.

Oceans Natures primary habitatrom phytoplankton to sh to

great blue whales. Source o most o the seaood we eat.

Rivers Natures highways and a owing source o hydropower.

Prairies, orests, Manuacturer o biomass and biodiversity, with

wetlands topsoil as a biologically benecial by-product.

Topsoil Keeps plants rom alling over and nourishes them.

Forests Provide ood, lumber, and oxygen, limiting erosion and

runof.

Metals For making stuf, including cars and computers and beer

cans.

Air Makes breathing easieralso ying.

Everything Cycling (and recycling) o nutrients in system.Regulating Keeping biotic systems in control.

Atmosphere Natures screen (rom ultraviolet rays).

Plants Natures carbon catchers, sequestering carbon dioxide and

partially regulating the climate.

Decomposition Natures waste management, reducing the amount o

garbage and shit we live in by breaking down organic

wastes.

Trees and Natures air quality control, removing pollutantsother plants like nitrogen dioxide, sulur dioxide, ozone, carbon

monoxide, and particulate matter rom the air.

Trees One o natures sunscreens, shading people and buildings,

and saving energy.

Clouds Another natural sunscreen, and an evaporative part o the

water cycle.

Continued on next page


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a place where he bodys plumbing mees he plumbing o culure andnaure, so is a rich ecological niche.

College sudens alk shi all he ime, bu no ecologically. A super-

cial conversaion is shooing he shi. Somehing obvious is no shi!while bullshi! is a sandard response o alsehood. I you care, youmigh give a shi. I no, you migh ge shi-aced a a pary. And ihe pary ges oo wild, he shi his he an. Shi is on he ip o ourongues, bu we need o bring i o he ron o our minds, because shiisn jus a linguisic consruc; is a daily realiy. Americans make abouve billion gallons o wase a day wihou even hinking abou i, bu wedon know shi.

When sudens need o ake a shi on campus, hey go o a specializedspace called a bahroom. In he average college residence hall, he bah-rooms seem a long way rom environmenal sudies, bu wase manage-men is an environmenal sudy. I youre a human being o average size andweigh, or example, your body produces abou a pound o wase, solid andliquid, every day. Is one o he ew orms o producion sill remaining inAmerica, one ype o manuacuring ha can be shipped oshore.

Te process seems simple, bu is airly complex. When Joe Collegeorders a cheeseburger and rench ries, he chews his meal and swallows,sliding he ood down his alimenary canal. Tere, a variey o digesiveenzymes conver complex carbohydraes ino simple sugars, ransormas ino glycerol and aty acids, and ransmue proeins ino aminoacids and pepides. In Joes small inesine, hese digesed nuriens areabsorbed by blood and lymph vessels o be carried ino he circulaorysysem o eed various organs. Whas leover is excremenal, he wase

ha wais unil, as he bumper sicker says, shi happens. When i hap-pens, we head o he oile and drop our load ino a small pool o waerwhere is submerged along wih is pungen smell. Aer wiping wihso shees o reaed rees, we ush he oile. o mos o us, is noworh a second hough.

Tis hasn always been he case. wo- hundred years ago, college su-dens disposed o heir bodily wases on campus. In he winer, peopleused bedpans, and hen carried heir wase o he ouhouse. Removed

rom he main buildings, he ouhouse was close enough or people ocomprehend he problem (and he possibiliies) o wase. In ciies, en-repreneurs regularly cleaned nigh soil rom ouhouses and sold i asa erilizer or oulying arms, providing a useul second lie or wha wecall wase. Aer he arrival o indoor plumbing, however, when shihappened, i wen down he drain insead o back o naure.


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Mos college sudens, like mos Americans, live by wha Philip Slaercalls he oile bowl principle o American lieou o sigh is ou omind. Bu when he oile ushes, shi doesn jus evaporae. I ravels

hrough saniary sewers o a solid- wase reamen plan. A mos suchplans, sewage receives several dieren reamens. Aer screening andgri removal, he mixure o excremen, urine, waer, paper, and oheriems eners a setling ank. Tere, solids drop o he botom so ha greaseand plasics can be skimmed o he op. Te waer heads or secondaryreamen, where microorganisms eed on baceria, puriying he liquid.Finallyusing sand lers, naural or aricial welands, ulraviole ligh,or ozonehe waer is polished, o bring i up o legal sandards, anddischarged back ino rivers. When we ush on campus, were inimaely(and insiuionally) involved in he waer cycle.

Biologically, excreion can remind us o he beauies o he nauralworld, he ways in which our bodies are designed o manage he ins andous o animal lie. Ecologically, our bahroom break reminds us ha allnaural sysems, including he human body, are involved in processes oconsumpion and reurn. aking in nuriens, we expel wases, whichuncion in he grand scheme o naure as nuriens or oher species.Culurally, however, our excreions are a mess: We rea shi like shi. AsChrisopher Uhl says, We ake wo perecly good resourceshumanmanure and resh waerand spla hem ogeher in he oile bowl,making hem boh useless. Bu i we ever ge our shi ogeher, perhapswed see ha human wases aren wased when we use hemproperlyreaedas erilizer or uel, hus reurning hem o he producive andregeneraive cycles o naure.4

The Artiicial Waterall

A some poin in he day, mos college sudens ake par in a purica-ion riual called a shower. Tey walk down he hall o he bahroomcarrying a plasic caddy holding soap, shampoo, condiioner, and oherloions and poions. owel on shoulder, washcloh or looah in hand,sudens look or an open shower, se heir supplies on a bench, draw a

plasic curain, undress, hang up heir clohes, sep under he shower-head, and hen open he valve o a orren o culural assumpions andexpecaions. Tough urning he ap seems mechanical, is also organicand very complex. In Norheld, Minnesoa, or example, he waerowing in he shower is drawn rom he Jordan Aquier. Is pumpedhrough a puricaion plan or chlorinaion and uoridaion, and hen


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o waer owers ha provide he pressure or he whole municipal sys-em. In a hydraulic civilizaion, waer goes no jus where i alls or ows,bu where we wan i.5

Te shower ges us clean, bu i also perorms culural work. Dir isevil in our culure, and so we riually cleanse ourselves in a sor o dailybapism, iniiaing us ino a sec o saniaion. Early in he morning, aswere rying o wake up, a shower is cleansing and simulaing. Laer inhe day, aer a run or a game o baskeball, is cleansing bu also relaxing.In eiher case, a shower is a way o washing he body, bu is oen also aluxury, oo. Te waer sreaming over he skin, massaging he muscles,is a sheer deligh. Te sound o consan ow is soohing, like a cascad-ing creek. And he seamy hea peneraes our pores, comoring us wihwondrous warmh. We bahe no jus physically, bu also psychologically.When were diry, we ell ourselves we need a shower. When were iredor sressed, we ell ourselves we deserve a shower. A long shower, oo, is acounerpoin o he culure o speed and eciency so recenly reinorcedby our alarm clock. In a small way, a slow shower is a proes movemenagains a world o enorced ime povery: As we linger in he liquid ran-quilizer, were notquick and were notecien. Tis ulimaely is a prob-lem. Resising he ime pressures o our sociey migh be a good insinc,bu using y gallons o resh waer in he process is no so good.

The Social Construction of Showers

We all undersand how a shower works, and how i can work o wakeus up, bu we need o wake up o how i uncions in he moral ecology

o everyday lie. Considered analyically, a shower, jus like he oile, isa way o ransorming drinkable waer ino wasewaer. Te drain waernds is way (sooner or laer) o an ocean, where i evaporaes and cir-culaes in clouds unil i precipiaes ino places where we can pump ionce again. In he shower, were in he waer cycle, which is aeced byevery urn o he ap.

We hink o a shower as a privae ac, bu when we ge in he sall,we ener wih a lieime o educaion and expecaions. Every day, ads

or soaps, shampoos, condiioners, gels, and moisurizers each us whaclean really means. Tey each us abou eelingsabou comor andpleasure and joy and indulgenceand someimes, or women especially,abou sexiness. Tey each us o ge clean, bu hey also each us o geha resh, cleaneelingha we have unconsciously learned o associaewih he commodiies in our shower caddy. Ads don ell us ha soap


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works rs by bonding dir o hydrophobic aty acids, encapsulainghe dir in droples o waer ha can be rinsed away, or ha shampoosgenerally use deergens like ammonium lauryl sulae o remove our

hairs naural oil and phhalaes o dissolve scens and hicken loions.Tey cerainly don rouble us wih inormaion abou he chemisry ocondiioners, which no only coa he clean hair wih diferentoils, bualso wih silicone, humecans, proeins, and quaernary ammoniumcompoundsprimarily o make hair slick and easy o comb. We donlearn where he ingrediens came rom, or who was involved in manu-acuring hem, bu has okay, because our hair looks grea, and haswha maters in he morning.

Indeed, we don learn hese hings because shampoo commercialsaren abou shampoo: Teyre abou culural concepions o beauyabou hair and he meanings o hair. Shampoo companies hire modelslike Cindy Craword, Eva Longoria Parker, and Jessica Simpsonwhopossess wha is essenially proessional hairo each us ha a womanshair, and no he brain beneah i, is wha makes her sexy and atracive.Generally hese shampoo models have long, sraigh hair ha hey wavearound in slow moion. Waching he ads, we migh believe ha he pur-pose o shampoo is o rain hair o dance.

A guys hair usually doesn dance in ads. Joe Colleges shampoo can besylish and scened, bu or guys in V ads, shampoo serves hree pua-ive purposes: washing hair aer an ahleic even, hus conrming onesmanliness; geting rid o unsighly dandru, hus conrming ones atrac-iveness; and convincing women o sroke he clean hair lovingly, husconrming he gullibiliy o he guy who believes in such a scenario.

Shampoo ads each us, or a leas remind us, ha women are mean osmell like owers and rui. For men, as usual, here is a narrower rangeo choices, and hey end no o be oral or ruiy. I men smell, he adsell us, hey need o smell dieren rom womenmusky perhapshusconrming heir independen gender ideniy. A he end o a shower,hereore, we can rinse o he shampoo, bu is harder o escape he im-ages and assumpions locked in he laher o he ads. Adverisemensshape our common sense o whas normal, and we respond, subly shap-

ing he moral ecology o everyday lie.

The Natural Resources of Showers

In he shower, we ge in ho waer when we orge where he ho waercomes rom, because boh waer and hea come o us rom naure. A


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oile is basically a small pond in he bahroom, while he shower isa waerall posiioned or our convenience. While hey deniely de-pend on plumbing and human ingenuiy, hey rely more basically on

precipiaion and he recharge o groundwaer and aquiersnauralphenomena. And because waer in naure is seldom warm enough or asaisying shower, Joe and Jo College use naure o hea naure, warm-ing waer by burning ossil uels or causing chain reacions in uranium.While we luxuriae in he shower, we also suck up he worlds resh waerand generae more greenhouse gases.

I a normal shower delivers hree gallons o waer a minue, hen aen-minue shower requires hiry gallons o waer. Wih jus one showera day or a nine-monh school year, mos sudens will use abou 8,1gallons o waer; i he average universiy has en housand sudens,has more han eighy million gallons. Simple updaes like low-owshowerheads could allow he universiy o save our million gallons owaer, plus he uels needed o warm ha much waer. Sudens wouldsill be clean, wih hair ha would sill glisen, bu he school could eas-ily be conserving resources.9

Te American shower has a deeper eec, hough, by impressing heplanes oher people, who oen emulae U.S. sandards o cleanliness.Te Briish bah, noes Elizabeh Shove, is in danger o being aban-doned in avour o showering on a daily or wice daily basis. By isel,his English adjusmen migh be no big deal, bu is a small par oan energy-inensive shi in inernaional comor sandards, and thatishuge. Tis also suggess ha sandards o cleanliness are never universalor permanen. American sudens now expec ree and unlimied waer

or showers in heir residence halls. A one ime, however, a rusee aa college in he prairies o he Midwes hough ha he purchase o asingle in bahub was an unnecessary luxury or sudens. Te exrava-gance only seemed jusied when he discovered ha he college couldcharge sudens a nickel a bah. I odays colleges charged sudens orwaer by he gallon, i migh help each he coss incurred by lingeringluxuriously in he shower, and i migh be a rs sep oward ull-cosaccouning (and accounabiliy) or all he resources in sudens lives.0

We shower ourselves wih waer, in an aricial waerall creaed byculure. Tough our morning shower never seems like geting back onaure, is one place where we could wake up o naure, a place where wecould pracice mindulness abou our ordinary consumpion. Usuallywhen we hink abou consumpion, we hink abou buying su or goingou o resaurans, movies, or concers. Ordinary consumpion, on he


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oher hand, is so rouine and repeiivelike waer and hea, elecriciyand embodied energyha we don normally consider i a par o ourconsumer behavior. In he shower, hen, we can ully enjoy he comors

and convenience o he seamy sream, bu we can also begin o immerseourselves in he paradigm shi o conservaion ha will characerize hecoming culure o permanence.

Mirror Image: The Nature o Looking Good

Aer perorming heir cleansing riuals, Joe and Jo College usuallyake par in riuals o sel-inspecion and sel-improvemen in ron o amirror. Te word mirror isel comes rom he Lain roo mirarioadmiremaking a mirror, a is roo, a meeing place or a muual ad-miraion sociey o one.

Ye while is smooh surace simply reecs he images o objecs, amirror also perorms culural work, reecing he paterns o Americansociey. I is a visual echo, and, like elevision, a way o seeingand noseeing.

As a mater o physics, mos mirrors reec exacly he paterns oligh and shade ha hi hem. Bu as a mater o culure, here can besignican disorions, because mirrors reec no jus he way we arebu also he ways we hope (or ear) o be. For example, when we look aa mirror in he morning, we are rained by years o advice and adveris-ing o see no jus our own reecion, bu also is relaionship o idealimages in magazines or on V. We are rained o ocus on pariculars:We don usually see he whole picure because were concenraing on

so-called problem areas ha popular culure has pinpoined or us. Onesudens mirror highlighs his pimples and he size o his nose, whileanohers magnies her worry abou her makeup and hair. Mirrors per-mi us o objeciy ourselves, o look a ourselves as ohers see us, raherhan as we ruly are. American culure eaches us o be atracive, ando dress or success, and he mirror provides he nal exam o see i wehave succeeded.

Bu mirrors can do everyhing. Alhough hey reveal he social sel,

hey diver our atenion rom he naural sel. Conemplaing eeh,zis, acial hair, and he dark circles under our eyes, we orge o appreci-ae he inricacy o he organism ha sands beore us. We orge, or ex-ample, he marvel o our eyes, which allow us o use a mirror eecively.An immense evoluionary advanage, hey provided our ancesors wihhe hand-eye coordinaion ha has made Homo sapiens such a successul


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species. Conaining abou hal he sensory recepors in he body, oureyes use abou 3 percen o he brains corex o see ha bleary ace inhe mirror. Bu we don usually perceive he amazing ecological adap-

aion saring back a us. Eyeing he mirror o check ou he suraces ohe sel, we miss he naure o he body and he naure o is connec-ions o he res o naure. Alhough he wasn alking abou mirrors,Toreau once wroe ha he waned o be naure looking ino naure.Tas wha happens in mirrors o America. Bu because we bring ourculural preoccupaions o he mirror, we oen urn ou o be naurelooking away rom naure.

The Student Body

Te suden body in he bahroom mirror is boh naural and culural.Te human body is, o course, a highly evolved produc o naural selec-ion wih biocal vision, bipedal locomoion, and nimble hands wihopposable humbs. I comes wih a big brain ha suppors complexhinking, oolmaking, communicaion, culure, and even college classworkno o menion auonomic uncions like breahing and bloodow. Is a mammals body in he mirror, wih warm blood and empera-ure conrol, an inernal combusion engine we call he digesive sysem,and a angle o bloodlines and nerves ha bring i all ogeher. Righnow, his animal body is brushing he eeh ha make i omnivorous,able o ea boh animal and plan lie. Bu his is only he beginning. Tenaural body is in consan inercourse wih naure.

We oen speak abou people and naure as hough he body is

bounded by is skin, bu his is a dangerous illusion. Te body in helooking glass is consanly sharing elemens wih is environmen, amass-ing aoms rom everywhere. As ecologis Chrisopher Uhl suggess in

Developing Ecological Consciousness, I you were o pu an ink do on amap o he Earh o designae he origins o he rillions o aoms hamake up your body, he map would be covered in ink. Our aoms havejourneyed o us lierally rom everywhere on he plane. We are a paro heir cycles. We are dependen on he Earhs inerdependence, and

we orge i a our peril.Te naural body depends on he naural world, no jus absracly,bu viscerally, and no jus occasionally, bu consanly. For example,he body we see in he morning mirror is breahing, inhaling he oxygenha uels he combusion o carbohydraes in he body. People can liveabou hree weeks wihou ood, and abou hree days wihou waer,


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bu only hree minues wihou air. We don hink much abou ha,however, because air is invisible, because is no ye a commodiy, andbecause is auomaic. However, i we had o buy he air we breahe, we

would pay a lo more atenion. I all o us needed o inhale Perri-air(as Mel Brooks does in Spaceballs) or visi an oxygen bar or our dailyrequiremens, wed be more mindul. I he hree housand gallons oair we ake in each day were as expensive as gasoline, wed noice. Buair is sill reean ecosysem service provided by he planeso we ig-nore i enirely (and allow indusries o pollue i). Likewise, i we had ochoose o breahe, wed keep i in our consciousness, bu he auonomicnervous sysem akes care o air or us. As Chrisopher Uhl suggess,Breahing happens on is own; you are no breahing so much as youare being breahed.

Even more amazing, he body we see in he mirror doesn jus exisin a naural habia, i is a habia or naure, lled wih microorganismsha are essenial o is uncioning. Recen sudies show ha perceno he cells in our bodies aren ours: Teyre baceria. In he micro-biome ha is us, some baceria are helping o conver plan sugars ousable energy or us, some are making viamins essenial o our healh,some are neuralizing chemicals ha could cause cancer and oher dis-eases, and some are making ood or oher baceria, including he cellsha line he colon. Tese lie-orms help shape he orm o human lie.Every minue o every day, we have a relaionship wih naure more in-imae han our relaionship wih our amilies, riends, and parners. Bynaure, we are always in relaionship wih naure.

Te relaionship, however, is no always harmonious, so we proec

ourselves agains microbes ha have proven deadly in he pas. In heUnied Saes, vaccinaions are pracically mandaory, so almos all col-lege sudens are armed agains he naural ourishing o organisms hahrive by causing disease. Bu we rarely sop here: On any given day alo o he bodies seen in college mirrors are eeming wih anibioicsaword ha lierally means agains lieas we ry o kill he living or-ganisms ha unsetle our digesive and respiraory sysems. Some o usalso use anibacerial soaps and loions o proec our skin rom similar

atacks. Unorunaely his deense can be counerproducive becausei kills he good baceria, leaving a body suscepible o hardier baceriaha develop resisances o our common pharmaceuicals.4

Te naural body also absorbs he chemical elemens o our culure.I we could lookinto he body, wed see su we don imagine when welook in he mirror. In Te Polluion Wihin,National Geographicwrier


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David Duncan recouns he chemicals ha ess ound in his body in26polybrominaed diphenyl ehers (used in ame reardans and im-plicaed in hyroid disrupions and neurological problems in mice); DD

(used as a pesicide unil i was banned in 173); he insecicides chlordaneand hepachlor; PCBs (banned in 176); Bisphenol A (used in hard plas-ics like Nalgene botles and saey goggles); phhalaes (used in shampoos,car dashboards, and plasic ood wrap); peruorinaed carboxylic acids(PFCAs); dioxins (used in making paper); and mercury (rom coal-ueledpower plans). Like mos Americans, including Jo and Joe College, Duncanis poisoned by he su our culure uses o ree us rom our naural limia-ions: gasoline, plasics, and ossil uels. Like i or no, he environmenalimpac o American culure ends up in our bodies and blood. Wha goesaround comes around, and he ouside environmen comes in.5

We miss a lo in he mirror, bu some o wha we do see is also deeplyrelaed o basic biology. Te culure o cosmeics, or example, may berelaed o our naural need or healhy maes. Many sociobiologiss con-end ha when were hinking abou appearances were oen hinkingabou he appearance o healhespecially he appearance o peoplewho look healhy enough o reproduce producively. eeh are a signo healh, so we brace hem and brush hem o make hem more atrac-ive. Lusrous hair is anoher indicaor o naural healh, so we shampoo,condiion, and color i. Some go even urher. Naure doesn call JoCollege o cosmeics, or example, bu cosmeics can imiae he signs onaure. Alhough college girls seldom hink o cosmeics in erms o evo-luionary biology, hey oen involve biomimicry: a youhul look, wihsmooh skin and ull lips, makes he ace appear healhier o prospec-

ive suiors. In he wenieh cenury, a an also became an indicaion ohealhy oudoor aciviy, so many o us ge anned, i only rom a botleor a booh. We wan o look wellor, as Carl Elliot says, beter hanwelland has naural. Bu how we ge ha look is decidedly no.

Righ now, when Joe and Jo College look in he mirror, heyre hop-ing o see someone beauiul or handsome looking back, because heyrerying o mee social expecaions. Tey could look or a sense o beauyhas more han skin deep, a sense o beauy ha mees ecological ex-

pecaions by connecing hem o he bioic communiy. When AldoLeopold ariculaed his land ehic, beauy was one o his crieria orwhen a hing is righ. Bu he clearly didn mean scenic beauy, sincehe derides he shallowness o people who only like he landscapes onaure. For Leopold, beauy wasn jus wha you could see, bu howyou migh relaebeauy was uncional, harmonious, whole. Wha i


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we ried o arrange our lives so ha when we looked in he mirror, wewould see he loveliness (and lovingness) o people who harmonizedwih naure? Wouldn ha be beauiul?

Waking Up to Responsibility

A college, when we wake up, we do wha comes naurally, even houghmos o i is wha comes culurally. American culure works hard odisance us rom our environmenal impacs and our ecological con-sciousness so ha even hough we wake up every dayin naure, we dongenerally wake up to naure. Our morning rouine oers all sors o cul-ural cues abou ime, busy-ness, and convenience, bu very ew cluesabou he naural world in which our harried aciviy occurs. We receiveconsan commercial messages abou cleanliness and looking good, buwe don read or receive many o naures messageshe ones sen asnews abou gas prices and oil wars, global weirding and habia loss,disease and exincions, or he simple and beauiul seasonal cycles oour campus habia. As a resul, we don see or eel ourselves as envi-ronmenal acors, paricipaing wisely or wanonly in he rhyhms andcycles o a living Earh.

When we wake up, some o us are conscious, bu ew o us areconscienious. Despie ha ac, we all paricipae ully in he moralecology o everyday lie, making a leas ve ehical choices beorebreakas. Bu we don eel like ehical acors because were jusdoing wha comes culurally. Weve made hese choices no by ouracive opions bu by our passive paricipaion in systems o choice.

As his suggess, one o he mos powerul hings we do in lie is odene normaliy or each oher. I is normal o ip on he lighs inhe bahroom, we normally hink is okay. Bu i migh be more com-plicaed han ha. For example, when Joe and Jo College hink heyare jus lighing a room, heyre also generaing greenhouse gases. Ihey hough abou i, hey migh hink ha his is no big dealandha would be rue, i hey only lived or a day. Bu Americans live along ime, so all o our no big deals add up o major environmen-

al impacs. As Eric Sorensen poins ou in his Seven Wonders or aCool Planet,I he average Norh American lie expecancy holds aseveny-eigh years, each person can expec o produce 1,63 ons ocarbon dioxide over his or her lieime. Te everyday acions o su-dens are choices camouaged as rouines, bu each o hese habis is,in ac, a moral choice.


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Because wha we do maters, we migh wan o wake up o more hanhe mere rouines o he day. Mindul o he social consrucion o col-lege culure and he busy-ness o campus lie, we migh ry o se asideime or some big quesionsones having o do wih he goodness ohe good lie or he healh o he ecosysem services ha we dependon. Mindul o he lie-giving properies o waer, we migh ry o con-serve i or uure generaions. Mindul o our animal naure, we mighry o be creaures who enhance habias, insead o despoiling hem.Mindul o he complexiies o he human body and he oher bodies

ha suppor i, we migh nurure a sense o wonder or he naural worldha includes us so generously.

Mindfulness: Te qualiy o atenion and care ha keeps Earhin mind, so ha we can mind our own social and environmenalbehavior. Anonym: mindlessness.

We migh also begin o imagine and inven ools ha lierally remind

us o our responsibiliies or he lie o he plane. Mos curren echnol-ogies are designed o be easy o use, and easy is sadly oen jus a syn-onym or careless. Te hermosa mainains he emperaure in ourroom; he V sands ready or insananeous power-up; he car sarswih he urn o a key. Nohing reminds us ha ambien emperaures,insananeous elecronics, and auomoive ravel are environmenal

Cartoon by Tom Toles. Reproduced by permission of Andrews McMeel Publishing.


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issues. Nohing ells us abou he implici choices embedded in ourmachines. Bu we can remind ourselves o our environmenal impacsand change hemby designing machines or ehical impac as well as

aesheic appeal. In Sustainability by Design, or example, John Ehreneldsuggess ha a dual-ush oile disrups he normal ow o lie jusenough o make us mindul o our choices. Insead o jus ushing, wehave o make a choice abou how much waer o useand i we knowanyhing a all, we know he choice is boh environmenal and ehical.Evenually, his waer-saving opion migh become second naure o us,and we migh nally esablish a mindless habi ha acually conserveshabias.

We migh also consider reinvening he habis ha hreaen he plan-es naural (and culural) habias, so ha our habis each he peoplearound us abou he rouines o a regeneraive lie. Unlike mos humansin mos o hisory, Joe and Jo College live in a segregaed sociey, hav-ing separaed hemselves rom he reecive experience o he nauralworld. Americans value geting back o naure on vacaion, bu hacommon phrase illusraes jus how ar weve removed ourselves romnaure in our everyday lives. Insead o jus living on he Earh, here-ore, we migh begin o live in he Earhs cycles and rhyhms, no jus asconsumers o ecosysem services, bu as sources o ingenuiy, creaingregeneraive designssocial, ecological, echnological, and personaldesignsha make i easier o live well wih naure.9

Forunaely, Joe and Jo College live in an environmen ha allowsreconsideraion and reconsrucion o he way we live in he world: hecollege campus. Unlike mos Americans in he workaday world, college

sudens could easily wake up o sysems hinkingo see he sysemsha operae beneah he suraces o everyday lie and o change hem. Inhe college environmen o hope and opporuniy, why no pracice hemapping and modeling o naural sysems, including he alered socksand ows ha resul rom our ordinary consumpion? Why no pay a-enion o he inpus and oupus o our naural and culural sysems,and o eedback loops in naure and culure? Why no consider he cul-ural resources ha we have o change he sysems we live in, aligning

our human sysems wih he ecosysems o naure? Why no make ourlives mean somehing?0Academic success won mean much in a world o ecological ailures,

and a college degree won be so advanageous on a plane warmed byve degrees. Te grade we ge in biology won mater ha much i wecompromise he planes biological sysems. Cleanliness may sill be nex


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the nature of college | by james farrell

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