I’m a cat person.

I had never owned a dog growing up - in fact I have usually been scared of them. My experience with Lotus was different. This dog had lost its owner and survived a house fire. It was traumatized, and I felt a strong bond with her. My interactions with all dogs have changed - I now see something special in them I hadn’t before.

Perhaps Kant was right, and that the dog merely acted as a “means” to making me a more compassionate person to other humans. However, perhaps there’s something to be said for the argument of giving non-humans some of the rights of personhood. Perhaps even Singer is right with his arguments on speciesism. I saw personhood and personality in the dog.

When I went birding, I watched birds more closely than I ever had before. I noticed how they moved and talked. They reminded me of my chickens at home, with whom I have bonded. While I watched, I no longer felt dualistically separate from the birds. I watched their lives unfold above me. I began to wonder again - do the birds and their ecological surroundings deserve rights?

My project has come to a close.

Setting aside an hour each day remained a challenge for all two weeks. The meditation practice and naturalist readings I had planned mostly fell by the wayside. I made excuses for myself not to spend time outdoors. However, I still spent an hour outside every day. The utilitarian in me derived much more pleasure from relaxing outdoors than sitting indoors doing homework. It also felt virtuous to follow through with my intentions.

I spent most of my time outdoors exercising, working, or simply enjoying life. My meditation and reading practices will definitely continue in other aspects of my life. While the time I spent outside felt relaxing and the exercising felt good, it did not feel inspiring. The inspiration I have felt usually required that I leave the city behind and dive into deeper wilderness.

I believe the reason for not feeling inspired was because I felt alienated by my environment. Warwick Fox quotes Duvall in saying “Deep Ecology begins with unity rather than dualism.” It is hard for me as an individual to fully integrate into a human-dominated environment. Time in the wilderness has felt much more integrated, much less compartmentalized. There was also a dualism in my perspective of this assignment. My vision failed because of dualism; my “time in nature” was pitted against “my time on campus”.

I’m glad I got to see lots of different spaces, at different times of day. I had never went to the same spot twice, or at the same time. This planned randomness made the project difficult however - I had to fit in my hour each day on the fly. It was still nice to see different parts of my local area at different times. The experience helped provide a more comprehensive understanding of the environment and land that surrounds us.

Juxtaposition of Monument Creek and the Power Plant

Leopold writes in his Land Ethic that “land use ethics are still governed wholly by economic self-interest.” If I had noticed anything during this project, it was that land was not being used fairly. While sitting on the creek I observed a train pulling hundreds of tons of coal into downtown. New buildings and homes were being constructed. Roads and pipelines were being repaired. The amount of energy it was taking to keep the city functional was in opposition to the effort it would take for a piñon forest to slowly rise from the earth.

It was my original intention for my perspective of this assignment to change from a burden to something necessary. An hour each day still felt like a burden. However, I am now aware of new green spaces on and around campus that I plan to spend more time in.

I will likely continue my project by biking more. I discovered, when trying to get around to natural areas, that biking was fun and rewarding. I will also continue by going on more intentional, longer, more distant hiking adventures. I plan to continue leading trips through the ORC, providing others with the opportunity to explore alongside me. I’m looking forward to backpacking the Colorado Trail for last block break.

Exploring the Sand Dunes!

Near the end of the project I began spending my hour outside with others. It had felt somewhat lonely before. One day I sat and studied in a park with my girlfriend. Another day I went birdwatching along with Stephen and Ben. The experience of birding was wonderful. As I have mentioned before, the virtue of environmental awareness is a powerful tool. Simply after one hour, my awareness of animals and sounds was very heightened. I also felt a deeper interpersonal connection between myself and the birds around me. I will outline the experiences with animals that emerged from this project in a separate, final post. I definitely plan to continue practicing birding this summer in Portland.

Overall, I’m glad this assignment encouraged me to spend time outside. As the days begin to warm and the trees begin to bud green, it is important too that I emerge from my hibernation.

Here's the story behind saving Lotus the dog! 

Reflections

I set out on my first day of being outside biking to a secluded spot along Monument Creek. I hadn’t ridden my bike for awhile, and the exercise felt freeing. On my ride I realized I wanted to try being outside in different places at different times. I wanted to observe nature and my mind in as diverse of settings as possible.

I pulled up to a bench in a park, sat down, and began meditating. I noticed that I was easily distracted by my phone and obligations. However, having time dedicated to myself in a green space felt amazingly liberating. It felt very different than time spent relaxing on campus. The wind blew, and I inhaled the fresh air with satisfaction.

On the second day I decided to walk to Monument Creek instead. I felt impatient trying to cross busy Uintah street. This was my time to relax, not to breath in air pollution from cars. I had not foreseen transportation as an obstacle for time when planning my daily hour in nature. Once I reached the creek, I remembered how manipulated by humans it has been from my studies in geology. The creek appeared as a natural object though, and was the closest I was going to get to a complete ecosystem in the area.

I did walking meditation along the banks of the creek. I then took off my shoes and waded across, feeling the cold water push against my thighs. I had anticipated finding a cleaner more natural area on the other bank. I was wrong. The non-trail side of Monument Creek was full of trash. I sat down in a field of cups, bags, old clothing, and parts of an old air conditioning system. I opened up Walden and began reading:

“Sometimes, having had a surfeit of human society and gossip, and worn out all my village friends, I rambled still farther westward than I habitually dwell.” -Henry David Thoreau

I wondered why I hadn’t explored the creek more since coming to CC. I had walked along its banks when I visited as a prospective student. I had been under the impression that I would come here on a regular basis. I was glad to rediscover this space, being away from campus felt both exhilarating and calming.

Walking back to campus, I came across a lost dog. There was no owner in sight. I brought her back to campus. Had I not been practicing mindfulness in nature, I doubt I would have noticed the dog, or had enough compassion to temporarily adopt her. I’m not a dog person, but our studies in animal ethics and visit to the zoo had impacted my personal values around animals.

My virtue of awareness had heightened enough to notice the dog - who hadn’t made a single noise. The silent dog, a female corgie named Lotus, ended up belonging to a family whose house a couple miles away had burned down. I remembered Kant’s writings, and his ideas around caring for animals in order to better our human relationships.

Over this weekend I spent time leading an ORC trip to the sand dunes. It felt good being outside for an extended period of time - it recaptured what I had experienced over spring break. Enabling others to share my experience felt virtuous as well. Over all of these experiences I thought about virtue ethics and deep ecology. The degree to which I enjoyed spending time in nature, becoming increasingly aware of my environment, and sharing my experience with others has strongly enhanced my environmental virtues. Being stuck in the city, however, made connecting to natural areas on a deep ecological area more difficult. Once I made it to the sand dunes, I felt myself becoming part of the wind, dune beetles, and magnetite. I came back to CC with a different frame of mind, and definitely a broadened sense of “I”.

First Pictures!

A beautiful spot to sit on my first day.

Found a lost dog on my second day, eventually tracked down her owners. :)