Let\u2019s talk about bubble wrap. For the uninitiated, it\u2019s worth noting: a fresh sheet of pristine bubble wrap provides an endless abundance of sensorial pleasure and poppable potential. The satisfaction of its loud \u201cclack!\u201d is matched only by the sheer delight of snapping a pustule beneath your thumb pad.<\/p>\n
For years (heck, until this course began, really), I\u2019ve lived within my own protective Bubble. Born into privilege, safeguarded from any such adversity, mine has been a dome-home insulated by all the resources I\u2019d ever need\u2014and then some. I have access to the basics (potable water, a toilet) plus the next rungs of Maslow\u2019s Hierarchy (loving family, community) and (cherry-on-top!), a few goodies and gadgets (iPhone, microwave). Don\u2019t get me wrong: I sure enjoy this Bubble. Cozy, clean, familiar: it\u2019s all a middle-class white girl ever needs! Venturing beyond its membrane would mean risking failure or sickness, disappointment or even downfall. Where\u2019s the reward in willingly bidding adieu to the Bubble\u2019s boundary?<\/p>\n
Of course, as we know, that\u2019s the wrong question. This isn\u2019t a matter of \u201creward\u201d: it\u2019s about responsibility<\/em>.<\/p>\n As the Ecological Footprint activity recently revealed, my tiny \u201cenviro-habits\u201d only go so far (a compulsively-composting vegan cyclist isn\u2019t as Green as she once hoped). Because my bubble exists within a system<\/em>, and because we\u2014as system constituents\u2014are urged to consider ourselves in a holistic, symbiotic sense, it\u2019s inevitable: I will bump into a lot of other bubbles! And we multitudinous bubbles are but minuscule cells in a much larger limb, a limb that belongs to (if you can believe it!) an even-more-gargantuan corpus. How\u2019s that in terms of \u201cperspective\u201d?<\/p>\n \u201cConfined spaces are boring,\u201d noted Sara Schley, \u201csooner or later many of us emerge, aware of the gap\u2026and interested in learning how to do our part to close it\u201d (Oxford Leadership Journal 3).<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s time my privilege\u2014my isolation<\/em>\u2014got popped. It\u2019s time to nestle uncomfortably to others, to share and learn and link up. How to do this? I believe, earnestly, that technology<\/em> promises a great deal.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n As Professor Litfin paraphrased in class, astronaut Neil Armstrong once said: \u201cIt suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n These days, the bulk of our thumb-work consists of scrolling, tapping, and swiping. That iPhone I mentioned earlier? It\u2019s made my stubby digit quite adept at navigating cyberspace. Do our thumbs function in a similar fashion as Armstrong\u2019s? By unlocking the phone\u2019s screen, are we effectively \u201cblotting\u201d out the big picture, losing sight of Gaia\u2019s scale?<\/p>\n Or<\/em>, conversely, might this powerful network<\/a> we hold in our palms be one solution for our problems? Does not the iPhone\u2019s Home Button resemble a popped sphere of Bubble Wrap?! Professor Litfin urged us to start \u201cthinking in circles<\/em>\u201d [emphasis added] (420). Technology has the power to unite us, to literally and figuratively \u201cbreak\u201d our bubbles. Political revolutions can start in the palm. But we must harness the technology responsibly, intelligently. To think on a systems-, rather than singular-level, we have to shift our attention from Instagram to Gaia-gram. What might this look like? A \u201cPok\u00e9mon Go\u201d-like game that encourages players to pick up trash in their neighborhoods? Alerts sent to phones, reminding us to switch off unused lights?<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth sharing the final part of Armstrong\u2019s quote: \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like a giant,\u201d he admits, despite enjoying a view many of us will never experience. \u201cI felt very, very small.\u201d<\/p>\n This sensation\u2014insignificance, humility, awe<\/em>\u2014is a very powerful one. I\u2019ve actually begun to seek this out, effectively hunting for more bubble-bursting epiphanies. Just how tiny am I? Where can I be reminded of this? How large is, say, our UW community? Can I stand in the middle of Red Square during rush hour? \u00a0Rather than paralyze, these moments motivate me profoundly. They encourage me to do the best I can, while I\u2019m here, no matter how tiny an echo my singular \u201cclack!\u201d may have.<\/p>\n Pop on, populace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let\u2019s talk about bubble wrap. For the uninitiated, it\u2019s worth noting: a fresh sheet of pristine bubble wrap provides an endless abundance of sensorial pleasure and poppable potential. The satisfaction of its loud \u201cclack!\u201d is matched only by the sheer delight of snapping a pustule beneath your thumb pad. For years (heck, until this course began, really), I\u2019ve lived within… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[7,10,14,24,22,23],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-2","tag-citizenship","tag-ecological-footprint","tag-gaiatheory","tag-journal-entries","tag-systemstheory","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}