The purpose of this study is to explore how people I interview engage in Earth-based food, medicine, and spiritual practices in their everyday lives and why. Ultimately, I hope this exploration will help shape a narrative of Earth-based practice based on the experiences people have in their everyday lives. I hope this approach can offer an emerging narrative of environmentalism and environmental practice that is based in people’s relationships with their bodies, the planet, and the philosophies, theories, and systems of devotion that help them to maintain right relationship with themselves, other people, and the planet.
Wanting to be a Nun, Nikki Giovanni, and Lies We Tell Our Children
It was so obvious to me at that point that history books were lying, or at least telling only a very small portion of the story. I knew there were so many other stories and I wanted to tell them, I wanted to see them next to one another. I had a clear vision at that time of how all of these stories would be presented in book form. I had no idea at that time the sorts of technologies that would become available to be able to tell stories. Facebook was only just starting. YouTube wasn’t a thing—the idea that people would be able to make videos at the drop of a dime from their phones wasn’t conceivable to me at that point. Few people are as critical about technology as I am. And yet, at the same time, I have so much hope about the ways in which technology, when used mindfully, can shift the narratives that dictate our lives, can shift how we understand ourselves, our collective and individual histories, and the ways in which we share them with other people.
