It's Complicated

Last Sunday, our minister recently read the Mary Oliver poem At the River Clarion by Mary Oliver, in preparation for a timely and insightful homily entitled Watershed.  

Although I do not know her work very well, I always enjoy poems by Mary Oliver. One line in particular stood out, leading me to find a nice photo of the poet on which to inscribe it digitally. 

Photo of Oliver and her dog by NYT photographer Angel Valentin,
as part of a story on Oliver's canine poetry by Dana Jennings.

I appreciate this line because it is a reminder of why education in general -- and geographic education in particular -- matters. We go to school only in part because it can help us to prepare for careers. We also study because the world is complicated, with complexities, connections, and paradox that defy easy explanation -- though charlatans are always ready to offer those.

Lagniappe 

As mentioned above, our minister's homily was entitled Watershed -- her thoughts in connection with the UU traditional in-gathering known as a Water Communion. Our congregations return from summer breaks to open the church year by bringing water from the places we have visited/lived/worked/played during the summer. 

At the beginning, she mentioned that she was going to use a watershed analogy, even though she was not an expert. To my mild delight, she singled me out as someone she hoped would not be disappointed in her use of the concept. I was pleased that she recognized that this concept is very much in my realm of expertise, though she could not have known that even among geographers, my involvement with watersheds is kind of extreme. My master's thesis involved thousands of calculations in dozens of watersheds, I worked for several years with my university's watershed program for middle schools, and I teach some very arcane lessons about watershed geometry. 

With all of that said, I can report that our minister succeeded not only in describing what a watershed is, but also in connecting it to a very helpful message about approaching moments of change.