That's what Colin Beavan asked himself some years ago. He was thinking of his next book project and thought he'd write something about how the rest of the world should get its act together and start being nicer to Mother Earth. And then one hot August day he came home and was hit in the face by a blast of cold air when he opened his apartment door, which had blowing all day without a living soul to need or enjoy it.
And just like that cold blast, it hit him. He was the problem. Not everyone else. OK, everyone else sucks too. But, he realized that his next book would be about him learning to be nicer to Mother Earth instead of lecturing everyone else on what they should do.
The result was a year-long quest to have "no impact" on the planet. A tall order for someone who lives in Manhattan. But he tackled it, slowly taking away modern conveniences that would leave a carbon footprint right down to eventually turning off the electricity in his apartment. He did this while married (and, yes, amazing he stayed married through this project) with a small child. He blogged about it as he went, assembled a documentary (well worth streaming on Netflix) about the experience, and then eventually published a book, "No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries he Makes about Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process."
This book was the selection of this year's "First-Year Reading Experience" at the University of South Carolina. Each summer new students receive a copy of a book at orientation and are asked to read it before arriving on campus in August. Then all new freshmen, I mean first-year students, meet at the Carolina Coliseum (about 5,000 strong this year) to hear a keynote speaker and then head off to discuss the book in small groups with a discussion leader.I was asked to review the book last fall and give my assessment of how it would work for this annual program. This is what I wrote to the selection committee:
I think this book has tremendous opportunity for programming. I think the (fun) challenge will be to look beyond the obvious programming choices. Clearly, lots can be done around issues of the environment, climate change, sustainability, and so on. But lots of other things popped out at me.Knowing that there would be a focus all year on sustainability at USC this year (indeed starting right at this morning's program with composting trash cans for apple cores and banana peels and with the FYRE staff handing out reusable to all participants as they left the Coliseum), I focused the aspects of book related to self-discovery through writing with my group of students. We reflected on Beavan's keynote address and the process he went through and what it meant to him as a learner and how he followed a passion despite doubts about how it would pay off. As in the past four years I've served as a facilitator with this program, I saw the whole range of freshmen attitudes, from "I'm too cool to be here" (and "I'm already a damn fined recycler anyway") to "I'm totally gonna apply what I learned here today."
What is the process of writing? I think this book is an excellent example of "learning by writing." The book reads almost like a diary -- a very engaging (and obviously edited) diary, but in the way he pulls us through the process of deciding to do the project, doing the project, and then discussing the impact of the process he is showing us his thought process. We see this as a process, not just a product. Indeed, he started it as a blog and then translated it into a book -- an example of how the new media interplay with traditional media.
Also, it is instructive to how we (whoever that "we" is -- popular writers, faculty, students) decide what to write about. Do we write about what we know or about what we are ignorant of? In his case, it was a bit of both. He writes clearly and humorously about the stuff he knows -- his family, NYC, the publishing business, etc. -- and reveals himself as a learner in other aspects, e.g., how much he thought he knew and what his blind spots were about the environment.
Then there's the issue of self-discovery. The book reminded me of some similar projects. One example is The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs' attempt to live the Bible literally for a year, adopting new biblical teachings as he went through the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. If you're well versed in the Bible, which Jacobs wasn't, you know how ridiculous this is from the outset, even for a believer. (Another book by Jacobs, The Know-It-All, would be a good book to consider for a future year. It's a similar "learn as you go" kind of project.) There is also Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, where he experiments with an all-McDonald's diet for a month.
There are certainly other similar books and movies, but my point here is that these are all examples of a person taking the process of self-discovery to an almost absurd extreme. But in these extremes we can see some great kernels for discussion. No student at USC is likely to undertake a similarly Quixotic journey into learning about the environment, the Bible, or the effects of fast-food, but we can ask ourselves what is it that we are willing to do to discovery who we are? What we value? What we believe? What are we willing to change in our lives to make life better for ourselves and others? What are we willing to do once we discover our "values"?
I loved his honesty about this process. Because it was such an extreme case he wrestles with the inordinately mundane quotidian decisions we all make without a second thought such as what to use to blow our nose. He readily acknowledges his shortcomings in living up to his impossible standards.
I think these kinds of questions and issues are key parts of the book. Environmentalism is clearly the motif that drives the narrative, but in a way it's almost a MacGuffin.
I think first-year students will be able to read it and relate to it and it's the kind of book that can easily be recalled off the dorm room shelf for talking points at late night bull sessions.
The final question we asked was the question Beaven poses at the end of the book," So, what are you going to do?"Well, as for me, when I got home tonight I realized the lawn was overdue for a haircut. Instead of revving up the gas mower, I pulled out the classic push mower and cut the grass old school.
