Last week, I had the opportunity to offer the Beane Lecture at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa. My topic was, “‘Walk Cheerfully Over the World’: Living Justly Amidst Climate Change” (the link is to a video of the talk, if you’re interested). The Beane Lecture offers an opportunity for students, faculty, and the community to hear from a Quaker scholar, hopefully connecting something about Quaker values with current issues and at least one academic discipline.
I really enjoyed my time on campus and in Oskaloosa. The faculty, staff, and students of WPU were very welcoming and fun to spend time with! While there, I got to share with Dr. Jennifer Siefken’s Stewardship class, which is doing some great work learning about ecotheology and putting it into practice through practical projects, such as educating their campus about the importance of recycling — and how to do it — and installing a pollinator garden.
The trip was also meaningful because I got to learn some things about my own family history. My grandparents and my great-grandma attended WPU, and my dad grew up in Oskaloosa, but I had never had the chance to visit. The registrars even went back and found my great-grandma’s records. She graduated in 1926, so it was pretty amazing to be visiting campus 100 years after she went to school there!
I also got to spend time with Friends at College Ave Friends Church and the staff at Iowa Yearly Meeting, and hear about what it’s like to be a Quaker in Iowa right now. It was encouraging and inspiring to hear their stories and to get to connect with folks doing good work in this challenging time.
For the last couple years I have been not flying, as a way to reduce my climate impact. This is especially important, it seems to me, when I’m going places to share about climate change. Therefore, I’ve gotten to ride several cross-country trains. This trip was over 60 hours each way. I had not been on the routes I got to take this time, the Coast Starlight down to California, and then across on the Zephyr, which goes through the Tahoe National Forest and some beautiful high desert, near rock formations by Arches National Park, and traverses the Rockies. Every train ride is an adventure, but this one was luckily without drama.
Cherice Bock 