Fit for Society?
Spring break. Florida. It's not your typical college student Florida beach spring break but it's just what I needed. My first real foray into society since beginning my graduate school career has landed me with my family for a relaxing vacation at my parents condo. There are many reasons why I am lucky. While my parents generosity has made the list for quite some time, my family's patience and unconditional love are ranking high. In discussion with my friends at school it was conferred that we might need to tone it down upon re-entry to general society but this trip quickly proved the point.
Knowledge is a wonderful thing. In graduate school we are bombarded with it and then asked to examine it, go deeper and virtually live in a world of continual testing and theorizing. At first, it was tiring at times but lately I have come to cherish Saturday morning breakfasts at the market where groups of students gather to off-handedly discuss government policies, education, water rights, and whatever topic someone is wrestling with along with their hang over (due to either alcohol, sleep deprivation, or sleep indulgence depending on the person and the day). Any day, any time I can typically bother my roommate, classmate or neighbor to engage in some topic of conversation that came up during school or the news. It's often political and more often related to overcoming some detriment to society, as I see it.
It turns out, this is not normal lunchtime fodder in polite society. One day, while preparing lunch, my mom innocently commented on the high prices at the farmers stand where we buy our produce. Instead of letting a little comment go and polite banter continue, I launch into endless facts about government subsidies to corporate farming and the deceptively low food prices that result. I comment on how small farms actually produce more jobs as well as use less natural resources. And when my family didn't seem to buy into this tirade I mentioned the mineral depletion in soil resulting from corporate farms and making most supermarket produce less nutritional. Unfortunately I mistook their silence and knowing glances at one another as dissent when really they had already realized that engaging me in this line of conversation would only lead to more and more evidence eventually linking their local super market to global warming and famine in other parts of the world. In the end, silence was their best option for having a normal lunch.
I now realize their patience. They could have never known this would happen when I left to study peace in Costa Rica eight months ago. Because they love me, they have in turn allowed me to test theories and engage in conversation about societal wonders and mysteries I am trying to solve or understand. I've recognized that it can be annoying when I comment on the amount of water it takes to put corn cobs down the disposal or that bagged lettuce is washed in a chlorine mixture three times the strength of pool water. Yes, not everyone needs to be reminded of every detail that may or may not contribute to the impending end to civilized society as we know it. That's why when someone casually mentioned that mother nature really messed things up this year with the early cherry blossoms and daffodils popping up all over the Midwest, I politely smiled and my dad gave a sigh of relief.
Lessons learned (that I will probably have to re-learn):
Not every comment is intended for comment! Compassion and love can prove to be great guides in life. I would like to teach awareness but I am learning that in order to do so, I must be most aware.
“Choose your battles wisely. After all, life isn't measured by how many times you stood up to fight. It's not winning battles that makes you happy, but it's how many times you turned away and chose to look into a better direction. Life is too short to spend it on warring. Fight only the most, most, most important ones, let the rest go.”
― C. JoyBell C.
Knowledge is a wonderful thing. In graduate school we are bombarded with it and then asked to examine it, go deeper and virtually live in a world of continual testing and theorizing. At first, it was tiring at times but lately I have come to cherish Saturday morning breakfasts at the market where groups of students gather to off-handedly discuss government policies, education, water rights, and whatever topic someone is wrestling with along with their hang over (due to either alcohol, sleep deprivation, or sleep indulgence depending on the person and the day). Any day, any time I can typically bother my roommate, classmate or neighbor to engage in some topic of conversation that came up during school or the news. It's often political and more often related to overcoming some detriment to society, as I see it.
It turns out, this is not normal lunchtime fodder in polite society. One day, while preparing lunch, my mom innocently commented on the high prices at the farmers stand where we buy our produce. Instead of letting a little comment go and polite banter continue, I launch into endless facts about government subsidies to corporate farming and the deceptively low food prices that result. I comment on how small farms actually produce more jobs as well as use less natural resources. And when my family didn't seem to buy into this tirade I mentioned the mineral depletion in soil resulting from corporate farms and making most supermarket produce less nutritional. Unfortunately I mistook their silence and knowing glances at one another as dissent when really they had already realized that engaging me in this line of conversation would only lead to more and more evidence eventually linking their local super market to global warming and famine in other parts of the world. In the end, silence was their best option for having a normal lunch.
I now realize their patience. They could have never known this would happen when I left to study peace in Costa Rica eight months ago. Because they love me, they have in turn allowed me to test theories and engage in conversation about societal wonders and mysteries I am trying to solve or understand. I've recognized that it can be annoying when I comment on the amount of water it takes to put corn cobs down the disposal or that bagged lettuce is washed in a chlorine mixture three times the strength of pool water. Yes, not everyone needs to be reminded of every detail that may or may not contribute to the impending end to civilized society as we know it. That's why when someone casually mentioned that mother nature really messed things up this year with the early cherry blossoms and daffodils popping up all over the Midwest, I politely smiled and my dad gave a sigh of relief.
Lessons learned (that I will probably have to re-learn):
Not every comment is intended for comment! Compassion and love can prove to be great guides in life. I would like to teach awareness but I am learning that in order to do so, I must be most aware.
“Choose your battles wisely. After all, life isn't measured by how many times you stood up to fight. It's not winning battles that makes you happy, but it's how many times you turned away and chose to look into a better direction. Life is too short to spend it on warring. Fight only the most, most, most important ones, let the rest go.”
― C. JoyBell C.
Ah, Jenn, I love this post. It describes my life struggle to a T! But the fact that you are able to speak so eloquently (and calmly) about it signifies that you have a gift for relating to people and that you don't have anything to worry about. I mean, what is democratic discourse but the ability to share ideas on topics of pressing social/economic/political concern -- whether in the public or the private/household sphere -- without fear of reprisal? This is the only way that we as global citizens can develop a truly enlightened understanding of the multiple global crises that we all face. I think there is an urgency that exists today that has never existed before, and which demands that personal interests (even in the sustainability of our relationships, familial or not) be transcended for the sake of fostering that enlightened understanding.
ReplyDeleteBut it is something I struggle with mightily. I have given up talking to my father, for example, about anything remotely political for the sake of preserving our relationship, but that is only because he is beyond any willingness to engage in polite discourse on such matters as corporate interference in our food supply, free trade agreements, the drug war, immigration laws, the prison/military/industrial complex, etc., etc. I think all of these issues should be normal topics of polite family conversation! I feel like people who are offended by them are not willing or afraid to think critically and honestly about the realities of the present (culturally arbitrary) system, and our complicity in perpetuating injustices around the world....
Thank you as always for your honesty in tackling these subjects in a public blog, you are my hero! :) carol