I'm not sure if we will discuss anything from the last few chapters of Love Earth Now, but I thought I'd post some discussion questions to contemplate. Also, I'm not sure if you guys can edit this post, but feel free to add your own discussion questions if you can/want to!
1) What do you think Cheryl meant when she said, "While I've seen plenty of jacarandas in my time, I'd never truly seen one before today"?
A) Have you ever experienced a similar situation?
B) What was your reaction?
C) Did this have an impact on the way you viewed that thing from then on?
D) Do you think that if more people stopped to appreciate the aspects of nature that are usually overlooked or viewed as mundane, it could have positive impact on the environment?
2) Do have any "eco-guilt"?
A) Do you take any actions to assuage your "eco-guilt"?
B) Do these actions have any negative impacts on your life?
C) Is there anything you do to balance this guilt and these negative impacts?
3) Do you agree with Cheryl, that "Earth loves us"?
4) Does the Earth "speak" to you? What does it say?
5) Do you think the methods Cheryl uses to cope would be effective for you? What would you put on your own list? Would you add or remove anything from Cheryl's list?
6) What do you think was the purpose of this book?
A) Did this book impact the way you view things?
B) Did you gain anything positive from reading this book?
C) Would you reccommend this book to others?
I don't know if I would say that the Earth loves us as much as I would say that the Earth is forced to support us. I feel that for the Earth to love use we would have to have provided something to the Earth to make it better not just taken resources.
ReplyDeleteThe Author Cheryl has a website where she responds to comments people make about the book.
ReplyDeletehttps://cherylleutjen.com/
There is this cool article about book that fall under the similar scope of Love Earth Now. Seven Authors Share Books That Bring Them Closer to Nature.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bookish.com/articles/earth-day-books-nature-reads/
Good questions! Cheryl clearly is an empath of sorts, she feels spirit and personality all around... but does she really think the earth "loves" us? Or is she more like Spinoza, whose "intellectual love of God" is simply the understanding that our lives depend upon sustaining a healthy relation to the natural systems that spawned and support us? She wouldn't put it that way, of course, but I think she's smarter than she lets on. The big takeaway for me, from "Love Earth Now," is that we must care deeply for our "host, the world" (in George Santayana's phrase)... but we must also enjoy our lives, the very lives made possible by the integrity of our respectful relation to nature. If any of y'all come across any texts that express that message better than Cheryl does, please share with me (and future Environmental Ethics students).
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