by Jacob Hundt
Dear Friends of Thoreau College –
There is no denying that 2023 has been a hard year here on Planet Earth. In late May, as Thoreau College was staging our first Summer Field School program with 14 students from across the United States and around the world, the skies turned red and the air became acrid with woodsmoke as forest fires flared across Canada. This eerie light and bitter wind of early summer set a fitting mood for a year of war in Europe and the Middle East, political turmoil and distrust here in the United States, and flood, fire, and drought nearly everywhere. And if all of that weren’t enough, 2023 has been a year in which serious and knowledgeable people in government, business, and culture have been actively using words like “apocalypse” and “extinction-level event” in reference to developments in artificial intelligence and other technologies.
What can one do in times like these? Where should we devote our finite reserves of energy, time, money, care, and attention? How shall we avoid falling into despair? For me, these questions have three very clear answers:
Dear Friends of Thoreau College –
There is no denying that 2023 has been a hard year here on Planet Earth. In late May, as Thoreau College was staging our first Summer Field School program with 14 students from across the United States and around the world, the skies turned red and the air became acrid with woodsmoke as forest fires flared across Canada. This eerie light and bitter wind of early summer set a fitting mood for a year of war in Europe and the Middle East, political turmoil and distrust here in the United States, and flood, fire, and drought nearly everywhere. And if all of that weren’t enough, 2023 has been a year in which serious and knowledgeable people in government, business, and culture have been actively using words like “apocalypse” and “extinction-level event” in reference to developments in artificial intelligence and other technologies.
What can one do in times like these? Where should we devote our finite reserves of energy, time, money, care, and attention? How shall we avoid falling into despair? For me, these questions have three very clear answers:
- Cultivate the vitality and resilience of the local community in which you live
- Take loving care of the land on which you live
- Invest mightily in the formation and education of young people in your midst
