Matthew's First Post (Finally!!)

I was excited to learn that we would all have an opportunity to read different
books in order to bring our diverse perspectives and inspirations back to the class for
general discussion. Not only will this provide a rich fusion of ideas, but it will also mean
that I can finally read Cradle to Cradle by William Mcdonough and Michael Braungart.
This book has been on my shelf for at least the past three years, but has unfortunately
been passed over time and time again. However, this is all history now as I’ ve begun
reading it for this class. Although I’ m not very far along, this book has offered some
wonderful topics for consideration. For example, at the end of chapter one, the authors
suggest that, “ all the ants on the planet taken together have a biomass greater than that of
humans. Ants have been incredibly industrious for millions of years. Yet their
productiveness nourishes plants, animals, and soil” (Mcdonough & Braungart, 2002,
p.16). This simple statement is profoundly meaningful to me because I can get
discouraged sometimes when I think about my own insignificance compared to the
exponentially expanding population of human beings on Earth. When population is the
main culprit for all of our problems it leads one to a sense of hopelessness. However,
when population is viewed as a potential positive it completely changes everything.

I’ m currently taking Educational Organization and Administration as my other
class right now and during our first meeting we watched a youtube video about how
rapidly our (human created) world is changing. For example, it showed the unbelievable
amount of children currently being born in India and China. It’ s hard to express how this
video affected me, but the numbers and the visual representations of these numbers were
truly staggering. As such, it left me feeling kind of helpless. It was like someone came
out and said everything I’ m doing right now doesn’ t make one bit of difference because
I’ m swimming upstream against a torrent that will continually knock me back. However,
if this rushing of waters doesn’ t necessarily spell doom, then everything I’ m doing and
we’ re doing together makes a whole lot more sense.

In the book the authors also ask the readers to think about designing a system
that will recreate all of the deleterious effects of our current industrial model. When you
think about it like this (which I certainly have) it makes absolutely no sense. However,
my previous thinking has led me to believe that a superior system would involve less
people. I think that’ s a complete misnomer and an unproductive desire that leads me to
unhealthy fascination with apocalyptic literature. Instead, when we think about designing
a superior system for the future we necessarily need to include all of Earth’ s current
and potential inhabitants. They’ re here, so it’ s best that we all work together towards a
brighter tomorrow. It’ s hard to say in what direction this book is ultimately going to lead
me, but I feel confident that I’ m going to learn some helpful and inspiring lessons. If ants
can be so productive, why can’ t humans?