More times than not, I’d arrive to our class flustered and frazzled. In order to be on time, I’d have to race from across campus during passing period (a typical freshman mistake). Given my state of mind at the start of class, our contemplative practice were welcomed moments of meditation. A few minutes to collect myself and calm down made… Read more »
One of the most human experiences is to perform or listen to music. I’ve been lucky witness this while playing cello in the Campus Philharmonic Orchestra this quarter. Being immersed in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet reminded me of living in the Anthropocene. While I am not at all qualified to be commenting on Tchaikovsky’s works, this metaphor works too well… Read more »
Our action project allowed us to engage with the University of Washington community and to interact with a greater system, the federal government. However, we initially struggled to settle on a project that had an impact on a broad system and was possible to execute within a few weeks. We decided to go back to the basics and expand on… Read more »
In an era of global citizenship, our president is putting “America First”. This simple slogan would be harmless if our actions did not have consequences that the rest of the world must bear. In reality, the United States is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide. We are such a great contributor to the underlying causes of climate change that we… Read more »
The opening of Jeremy Rifkin’s The Empathic Civilization stirs an existential question about free will and empathy. Rifkin state that “the empathic predisposition is embedded in our biology.” He continues to discuss the discovery of “empathy neurons” and how biologists argue that humans naturally seek empathic relationships with other animals. Furthermore, educators believe that empathic social interaction is necessary to… Read more »
During my senior year of highschool, I worked in a retirement home. Despite the pleasant environment my coworkers and the residents created in the building, there was an underlying truth no one could forget: retirement homes are where people go to die. It sounds harsh, but we were reminded of it daily. There was always someone who had just died,… Read more »
Walt Whitman once wrote, “You air that serves me with breath to speak…You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers!… I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to me.” Despite how personally we interpret the phenomenon of nature, the world around us is so much more complicated that we can… Read more »
