Melissa Meinzer

Per our section in SCL, I did end up taking a mode of transportation this week that is highly unusual for me--I drove! And it suuuuuuuuucked. I had to drive my husband to and from the hospital for a procedure requiring anesthesia--no getting getting behind the wheel for me. We had to be at Mercy at 8:30a the day after all that snow. It was dreadful stop and go traffic and scary merges, with accidents and ambulances alongside. I just thought, "I cannot believe I used to do this every day." I think you can really get habituated to anything, including the scary stress-bomb of driving, if it's necessary. The experience made me wildly grateful that using transit is a practical option for me, and actually takes less time than driving and parking would. I recognize that's not the norm, and it makes me even more desirous that it should be.

I'm wearing a costume today that's pretty relevant to our class and if you guys don't get it, I'm gonna be super bummed. Fair warning!!!

HAY LOOKIT THIS!! We know her!

Anybody see the movie Okja? I avoided it for a long time because I knew there were slaughterhouse scenes in it, and I knew that would be really hard for me to watch. But I finally watched it and I'm glad I did. It's about genetically engineered "super-pigs" bred for size and taste. It's slightly surreal, as most of Korean director Bong Joon-ho's work is. But a lot of what it's examining really relates to sustainability. The movie starts off with our young heroine Mija, a farm girl in Korea, frolicking in the woods with Okja, her pet super-pig who she loves dearly. We see her gathering persimmons and catching fish, including returning a too-small one to the water. She takes only what she needs. Her simple mountaintop life with Okja and her grandfather is the epitome of sustainability, of treading gently on the earth. The greedy corporation that bred the super-pigs, meanwhile, is cartoonishly greedy with an insatiable appetite for pork. At one point, the sisters running the company (both played by Tilda Swinton, who does loony and creepy and unhinged like no one else) are talking about a PR nightmare when horrifying footage of super-pig breeding gets out. One sister says it doesn't matter--if it's cheap enough, people will eat it. Chilling. There is a showdown between Mija and the corporation and a lot of other wacky hijinks. The film is sad and weird but also really engaging and in some small ways uplifting. Maybe don't watch it with kids, but it's really worth a watch. It's on Netflix.

Last night in class we talked about the varying scales at which we can and should work, and how sometimes small actions add up and influence other people. This morning I got a very gratifying look at influence in action! I organized our annual staff retreat earlier this summer and the theme was sustainability, so I supplied every staff member with one of those sets of bamboo reusable travel cutlery. This morning, we had a staff breakfast and as I was walking over to it holding my cutlery and plate, at least two people I encountered were like "oh yeah, my fork!" and turned back to their offices and got their forks. Once I got there I saw plenty of other people with their kits. So--maybe ten less plastic forks in the landfill. WOO HOO, CLIMATE CRISIS SOLVED!! Ok ok it's not but more people are taking small actions, which is indisputably a good thing. Plus it might help create a social norm among us.

THREE EARTHS?!? Actually 3.1 earths. Calculating my footprint was humbling, and also reminded me of those old commercials for Total cereal where they were like "You'd have to eat 63 bowls of Jagoff-O's to equal the fiber in one bowl of Total!" and the hapless doofus eating the wrong breakfast would suddenly go from holding one bowl to 63 bowls. I digress. Honestly it was a little disheartening to realize that being vegetarian for the past 23 years and taking public transit every day haven't really done all that much. My smug vegan spouse would be quick to point out that I could make more of a difference by quitting eggs and dairy, but, like, have you tasted ice cream? I'm a fairly new homeowner so I have a lot of opportunity to both be more energy efficient and figure out how to grow more of my own food. I struggle a lot with the time I spend in airplanes. My parents live a flight away and so do my in-laws. I also just deeply enjoy international travel. This summer I visited the Amazon jungle in Bolivia, just weeks before the fires. It blew my mind and renewed my commitment to our breathtaking planet, but how much of it did I personally destroy on the flights it took to get there? It made me consider what we've been learning about systems thinking more closely--everything is linked and has consequences. The exercise also added a bit to my despair over the Gordian knot of how to see and love and enjoy this amazing planet without actively destroying it.