Learning in a Time of Coronavirus

     The world you awoke to this morning probably feels very different from the one you knew last month--the one you were used to. We're all still adjusting to this new "normal" that's disrupted our economy, our social circles, and our emotions. The world we re-enter when we can all see each other again won't be the same. If we're wise, we shouldn't try to make it that way.
     It's a good time to observe, assess, and adapt. You may find yourself with some additional time on your hands. If you can find copies by mail or electronically (that great democratic learning institution-the public library-has also been disrupted), here are five titles that will engage and entertain:

     "The Happy City" ties good narrative to scientific data that shows how designing the urban environment around human well-being also improves environmental and economic sustainability.

     "The Overstory" links ecology and the lives of several characters in an arc that shows how everything is connected.

     "Designing Your Life", written by two Stanford professors who teach design, walks readers through the principles of design thinking and how to adapt them to our individual lives. If you can only read one of these, read this one--it's about how to approach "wicked problems".

     "The Anarchist's Tool Chest" is not a terrorist's manual. It's about the author's journey from consumerism to craftsmanship through woodworking. You may not be into woodworking. The book describes the traditional set of hand tools and how to build a traditional tool chest, but the first half also explains how we can individually shift our behavior towards a more local, self-sufficient, and sustainable economy.

     "The Final Frontiersman" is about a family living in the remote wilderness above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. I read this book towards the end of my second deployment in Iraq. For me, while living in a desert patrol base with fifty other Marines, the story of solitude in a cold wilderness read like fantasy. It's a great perspective on what it means to be isolated.

   This is just a tiny, slightly random selection, but something I wanted to share.

   Stay healthy.

   Stay home.

   Come visit Odyssey Farm when we can all see each other again.

   Ryan