When first proposed the idea of writing a piece on the influence of my Zen practice on my environmentalism, I thought it’d be a piece of cake. I never feel more present and spiritual than I do when hiking through the woods of New Hampshire or sitting to meditate to the crashing waves of the […]
We need to remember what land is. Land is grace. It is something that comes in quiet moments and deep breaths. It is not something that was created to be sectioned off or partitioned. Land is experienced as that moment of ineffable beauty, vivid touch and life, something that can’t be owned, can’t be faked […]
My family never went to church on Sundays. Instead, most Sunday mornings, we would go for a walk in the woods behind my house. It took about a half-hour to walk down to the Potomac River, and as we traversed the little creek that led us there, we would talk. My father would teach us […]
When I was about eight years old, itching for my afternoon to start after a monotonous Sunday School class, my teacher told us that we would have a homework assignment for the week. As the class groaned, she remarked, “This will be easy. All I want you to do is hug a tree.” Groans quickly […]
Thesis proposals are in, and job interviews are on the horizon. As you return to campus for the winter term, is there much to look forward to? I’m sure you hear, almost daily, forecasts of doom for today’s college graduates looking to join the work force. Sure, that applies to the investment bankers and future […]
With the steadily growing movement of urban agriculture spreading across paved and chain-linked cities of America, thousands of urban residents are discovering and rediscovering the land around them-land that has lain forgotten or poorly used for decades. Agriculture flourishing and producing in the clogged cities? Oxymoronic, you might say. But the overflowing gardens and impressive […]
Tom Chappell spoke like a great philosopher as he conveyed his message of “common goodness” to an eager crowd of Dartmouth students and faculty on October 16 in Collis. “Goodness is an entity; a living being that has inherent worth and dignity,” he argued. These words were particularly refreshing coming from the lips of a […]
“To be an environmentalist who happens to eat meat is like being a philanthropist who doesn’t happen to give to charity.” -Howard Lyman
The three most commonly cited reasons for being a vegetarian: for the animals, for personal health, and for the environment. Although the first two factors tend to be widely publicized, the latter component […]
Kalahari Desert, Africa: November 13th, 2002
The past two nights here in the Kalahari have been dominated by thunderstorms-big, sprawling masses of darkness that roll in over the desert and beat down windy and relentlessly for a few hours until all suddenly ceases and the storm lumbers on as though it were never there at al1. […]
When I was eight, I arranged to have a special meeting with my elementary school principal to convince her that we needed a compost pile in the backyard of our school. I explained to her how we would collect apple cores and banana peels and put them in a pile to make dirt for the […]
Copyright 2006 Dartmouth Green Magazine