{"id":239,"date":"2017-10-10T04:53:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T04:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/?p=239"},"modified":"2017-10-18T16:05:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T16:05:40","slug":"239","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/2017\/10\/10\/239\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only Way Through is Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"\"\"\u00a0<\/span>\"\"\u00a0<\/span>\"\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sitting 11,000 feet above sea level I realized how people affect me. Perched in front of a Buddhist monastery in the village of Upper Pisang, along the Annapurna Circuit Trek, in the Nepalese Himalaya I found my collectivist agenda.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While I sat at this ramshackle monastery thousands of feet in the air, two Russian travelers sat beside me. \u00a0Sasha (Aleksander) and Borris talked about the scenery and the lives of the Nepalese peoples, we discussed Putin and Trump and through this came to the question of our earth. \u00a0Then Sasha said, in a thick Russian accent, “I think the key to saving this earth is for everyone to be good to each other.”<\/p>\n

I think to an extent Sasha changed the course of my life in that moment.<\/p>\n

For me the question of, who are we? gives an answer in itself. \u00a0“We”. \u00a0We are not purely individual, we are collective. \u00a0Collective with each other, our species, this earth and every life form out there. \u00a0We do not walk through this alone, we are charging a path as a species. \u00a0Not only do I see life this way, but systems theory walks us through similar realizations. \u00a0When studying keystone species within ecosystems we see proven to us that the fate of any living creature depends on the prosperity of the creatures around them. \u00a0While technologically advanced, humans are not excluded from this rule. \u00a0We see the loss of species from over-fishing, deforestation and many other man made factors negatively effect our lives every day. \u00a0Our food sources are dying, the quality of our air is decreasing, we are ruining our own lives. So whether you think humans are individualist or collectivist by nature, there is no excuse for lack of progressive action.<\/p>\n

I cannot say enough how grateful I am to have the space and time put aside in this class to reflect on how we fit into this master plan that is earth. \u00a0I have found more grace, passion and fulfillment in the past two weeks of deep thought, mindfulness and contemplation than I ever would have expected from a meditation retreat let alone a college course. \u00a0Looking at my experience so far I would say I am left with excitement for the soul searching still to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sitting 11,000 feet above sea level I realized how people affect me. Perched in front of a Buddhist monastery in the village of Upper Pisang, along the Annapurna Circuit Trek, in the Nepalese Himalaya I found my collectivist agenda.   While I sat at this ramshackle monastery thousands of feet in the air, two Russian travelers sat beside me…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[38,39,10,22],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-2","tag-collectivism","tag-community","tag-ecological-footprint","tag-systemstheory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}