Thursday, December 23, 2010

Shovels and Snowshoes

Me, Sarina, and Colleen after the first major storm of winter. We were snowed in all weekend.

Cross-country skiing on the bike trail in Lanesboro
 What a wonderful winter! We have had nothing but fun in all this Minnesota snow. Eagle Bluff is nice enough to let us use XC skis and snowshoes whenever we would like. On top of that, I have spent the past week alone with the fireplace and 3 windowed walls composing the very first draft of Our Farm. If anyone is interested in reading the full text please respond and I will email it to you ASAP. I appreciate all the feedback I can get.

One of the most interesting findings to me was this:

“Research…suggests that low levels of collective efficacy (a perception of mutual trust and willingness to help each other) are associated with adolescent obesity.”
(Fish, Ettner, Ang, Brown; 2010)

The purpose of Our Farm is to connect people to create sustainable communities that will inspire others to do the same. The most major problems that our nation faces are due to the lack of human interconnectedness. We do not have the trust or the inner-security to depend on the goodness of others. Perhaps it was not instilled in us at a young age, or perhaps we have been heartbroken and fear opening up again. Whatever it is, communities will be created and sustained by mutual trust and willingness to help each other. What are we doing to make our communities stronger? I feel most at home when my dorm-mates are working together to share a meal or shoveling out the walkways. Do the thing that makes you most happy and others will benefit from your beauty.
Snow-covered farm across the road from the Bluff


Reference
Fish, J. S., Ettner, S., Ang, A., & Brown, A. F. (2010). Association of Perceived Neighborhood Safety on Body Mass Index. American Journal of Public Health, 100(11), 2296-2303. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.183293