ǝʌıʇɔǝdsɹǝd

I don’t really know what my ears look like. I know the shape from the front, I guess I know how they feel, but in a line-up of ears… I’m not positive I could pick out my own.  But I can close my eyes and picture the ears of my friends with no problem.  I see them from a different angle.  Our world is beautifully complex, and a place this rich and teeming with diversity will understandably demand a complex and open-minded pattern of thought to navigate the challenges. To gain a cohesive understanding, changing the viewing angle matters- for ears, for elephants, for science.

A sociologist, an anthropologist, and an economist walk into a bar.

I love garage sales.  I love the feeling of unearthing a treasure, and not just a bargain, but something with its own stories.  An inscription on the front cover of a book, the idea of wearing a shirt that someone else wore while hugging their best friend goodbye, or a trinket that was picked up on a special vacation- I love the physicality of those things.  I think it’s sweet that humans collect stuff… what funny soft animals we are to accumulate these bits and pieces that appeal to our senses and surround ourselves with them.

50 Shades of Chetek

Anthropology is not black and white.  It’s more shades of grey than would fit between the pages of an airport paperback.  And the next day, it might be pink or blue or plaid.  Dealing with humans and the way they understand this complicated world is a hard thing to measure, but it is vitally important to this picture that we are assembling of water quality.

Lucky 19

When times grew dark in Middle-earth, Gandalf assembled a widely assorted company.  Each was chosen for a reason, and each was crucial to the success of the group.  While our project descriptions didn’t mention nearly as much dragon gold as Tolkien dropped into the mix, my heart is already overflowing with the way our band of nineteen is starting this journey.