Book Review

Walking on Water

By: Derrick Jensen

As I am sure most of you know by now, I am a huge fan of Derrick Jensen. I have read several of his books and each time I am enthralled. I start sending quotations and statistics from them to friends who (typically) ignore me and hope I’ll finish reading soon. The most recent book I read by him, however, is one that even my least liberal of friends would appreciate: Walking on Water.

This book is, on the surface, about the education systems in western civilization and how they form children into the wage slaves they will need to be in the “real world”. Derrick Jensen reflects on his own experiences as a student as well as those as a teacher at both a prison and a university. He mentions numerous times that the places didn’t vary “as much as you’d think” when it came to the classrooms.

What interested me the most about the book were the descriptions of how he taught creative writing classes in both the university and the prison. As an English major myself there were many aspects of his teaching that I recognized from my own experiences (arranging the desks in circles and being respectful while using praise in work-shopping to name a few). There were, however, many examples of things he did in his classrooms that I wish would have been done in mine.

He made sure that throughout the course he read an example of everyone’s writing. (He points out the fact that we have all felt left out at one point or another waiting for a teacher to read a “great” example of something we did only to have them reach the bottom of their good examples pile and read nothing of yours).

The level of respect he fosters in his classrooms is also a commendable thing. Although his views vary greatly from some of his students he finds a way to not let that effect his grading practices. The answer: don’t have grades. The struggle of creating a classroom with no grades when he is required to give them by the university is played out well in the beginning of the book.

All of these things were fantastic in the book, but the most important and powerful thing Jensen did within it is to teach readers how to find who they are. He talks about exercises he did with his classes not to make them better at grammar or to teach them the forms of poems, but rather to have them find out who they are. He challenges his class (at the end of the book) to “walk on water”. What he means by this should be clear to you by the time you get to the conclusion.

I read the entire thing cover to cover in less than a day, refusing to set it down for anything. This is a faster (and shorter) read than most of Jensen’s other works and I’d definitely recommend it. For those readers who are less radically-minded than me this is a good place to jump into Jensen’s works, for those that generally agree with me it will be an amazing supplement to your current reading base.

When Will Enough REALLY Be Enough?

I sit here wondering about what it will really take. As most of you already know I am reading Derrick Jensen’s Endgame Volume 1. The book touches on a very real question that I am ashamed I cannot answer in any way that makes me proud. Jensen asks what it will really take for people to take action to preserve the environment and change the way we live. He then starts to list all of the horrible things that have already happened to the environment and are currently happening—all of the devastation has not been enough as of yet. His premise is that the collective whole of society will not willingly change their way of life to a more ecologically friendly one. I have to agree with him.

I look at myself, for instance. I am prepared to be harsh here to make a point. I consider myself an environmentalist. I talk about the environment every day, how bad of shape it’s in, and how to save it. I dream of living in the mountains off the land and having no contact with the outside world. As you saw in my last post I could “pull a Chris McCandless” without much hesitation, yet enough isn’t enough for me yet. I know that the planet is struggling; I know how bad things really are. I read books and watch shows and talk about it all the time. Yet I haven’t been pushed over the edge to actually DO something. If someone as far gone as me hasn’t been pushed, how can I expect others to be?

I feel that this culture has so corrupted us that even I, someone who refuses to be blinded, am. I wince at the thought of dammed rivers and clear-cut forests yet I smile at sales online and order shoes I don’t need with little hesitation. I talk about conserving threatened fish yet don’t speak up while out to dinner when someone orders something I know is struggling to survive. It would be “improper” you see, to do so. When am I going to say “to hell with what is proper” and start making a difference? What will it take? I think I’d have to cut all ties with this society and go live on that mountain for awhile first. Otherwise I’d just keep getting sucked in by emails talking of free shipping and restaurants with a classy client base.

If I took all the time I spend preaching about recycled toilet paper and spent it actually contacting the press and companies that are clear-cutting for fresh pulp, maybe I’d make more of a difference. Or, perhaps, chaining myself to a tree is the only way. I need to change the way that I live if I expect people less ardent about this than I to do so. I need to stop living the life of a hypocritical dreaming hippie and start being the revolutionary I am in my heart.

I need to actually say Enough is Enough and start living my life like I mean it. Maybe then people will listen to me and things will change. Or maybe not.

Disgusted by Passivity

I have been meaning to check into the recycled content of the toilet paper at my workplace since I started here. I have told myself to research the brand over and over again, but have just been too lazy to check into it (and now it’s been over a year). Finally, today, I did. I was surprised and impressed to find out that it is incredibly Eco-Friendly paper and isn’t just marketed that way. They use 100% recycled pulp in the paper. This made me feel better for not doing anything for so long. Then I realized feeling better is the opposite thing I should be doing. My passivity on the issue disgusted me.

I consider myself an environmentalist. I read Derrick Jensen like his works are the books of the Bible, I preach up and down about the problems in our society and in nature. I talk constantly about it. Yet, I don’t DO much. I do not do a hell of a lot of things. I don’t drive much. I don’t leave my computer or TV plugged in when I’m not using them. Sure, these things are good. But when’s the last time I researched a company on my own (without the work done for me by Green Peace of the Sierra Club) and contacted them about their harmful practices?

I have wanted to email the restaurant Egg Harbor about their Styrofoam to go cups for over a year. I have meant to email the Sheraton about their use of Kimberly Clark products. (I waited so long on that one that Kimberly Clark has actually pledged to stop clear cutting before I sent an email).

That is the problem with the environmental movement. We are all too damn passive. We have been sucked into this society like everyone else and although we see the problems, we refuse to step out of the cave. How scary would it really be to get our feet wet? I preach about conservation yet work a full time job on a computer. My company isn’t the worst when it comes to environmental practices but it isn’t the best either. Yet I do nothing, because I must pay the bills. I refuse to admit that there would be far less bills if I lived in a place where I didn’t have to commute and could grow my own food.

I don’t know what it will take, a question that Derrick Jensen asks, to get people to actually do something about the destruction of our planet. Forests cut to the ground, global climate change, widespread starvation—none of this has been enough for me. Maybe I just need to admit to myself how bad it has gotten. Perhaps I need to travel to the forests that can no longer support even plant life because their soil is ruined by clear cutting. Perhaps I need to embrace a wolf pup and try to explain to it why there will be no supper now or ever because his entire family was shot dead from an airplane. Perhaps I need to leave the protective bubble of the 9-5 grind and get out there.

But that would be hard wouldn’t it?