The Planet Needs Nimble Minds

Welcome to, For The Planet. A microblog inspired by a healthy dose of nostalgia and my aspiration to contribute towards a healthier planet. The original FTP, or Friday Typed Page, as it was known in Mrs. Crall’s eighth grade class, was a weekly writing assignment and how I discovered I loved to write. The assignment was simple. We had to turn in a minimum of five hundred typed words at the end of each week. Or, as author Steven Pressfield might say, the assignment was simply for us to show up on the page. Now a recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins science writing master’s program, only now am I fully grokking the wisdom contained in this humble assignment. So, heeding the wisdom of Crall, Pressfield, and countless writers before me, I’m dusting off the Friday Typed Page once again, seeking that same accountability.

My intentions here are twofold: To build a writing routine and, as for the content, to allow each entry to be something of weekly offering in service to the planet I love. A planet I truly believe is asking for our help.

For the Planet will take any number of forms from week to week. I’m sure it will be a little rough around the edges, but the point here is one any creative can appreciate, to publish. Whether that is a concise, front-of-book style article, a piece of poetry, or an exercise in writing an economical essay (so much harder than a long one), I hope there will be a little something to find for anyone who calls Earth home. (Aliens, if you’re reading this, get at me. I’m cooking up plenty of other ideas.)

In the spirit of Earth Day, I’d like to start the inaugural post by posing a question to you, the reader.

What is your earliest memory of caring for the planet?

What moment, place, or cause stirred you such that you couldn’t look away and made you want to learn and do more?

Simple though it may sound, this question can prove surprisingly difficult to answer. And that’s okay. It’s arguably the point. I hadn’t truly reflected on the question myself until my early twenties when I took a rather enlightening course in college called, Environmental Inquiry. The gist was simple: Concerning the environment, how do we determine the most relevant questions to ask and why? Given environmental science is inherently interdisciplinary and environmental concerns must entertain holistic solutions, competing narratives will always arise. Keen to recognize this rather esoteric challenge that lies at the core of environmental science, our professor implored us to first become better acquainted with what the environment meant to us if we were ever to truly think outside of ourselves.

You might think posing this question to a room full of environmental science majors would be like dropping a match on a tinder pile but you’d be wrong. While virtually everyone in the room understood the gravity of the climate crisis, and were eager to devote their eduction to studying solutions, most hadn’t stopped to reflect on the why?

Personally, I relished the question. Memories came rushing back from a childhood spent pouring over back issues of National Geographic and championing campaigns to save the rainforest and whales as far back as the second grade. Only in answering this question did I begin to realize my passion lie in leveraging my writing to help folks ask hard questions and seek answers wherever they lead.

To this day, as we grapple with the increasingly existential nature of the modern environmental movement, I believe our greatest tool remains our ability to ask questions and integrate a variety of answers. Answers are rarely singular and often arise and evolve given different context. This requires a certain nimbleness of mind. And when so much of today’s environmental conversation is dominated by existential threats and what may feel like to some like challenges to a way life, it can be all too easy to be anything but nimble.

So, in the hopes of always remembering why each of us loves this planet we call home and maintaining our collective nimbleness, I welcome you to share in the comments below memories that inspired you to tread more consciously on this magnificent planet.

I’ll see you next week.