Week 8 - Harry Manacsa

I resonate loudly with the notions pointing to the rifts between spirituality and academia, more so in recent times regarding my personal life. The progressive stress and time constraints between classes, laboratory work, and volunteering have effectively taken away my time for religion, self-care, and social awareness. The immense pressures to succeed academically on paper force me to sacrifice the comfort and happiness that I’ve meticulously built for myself. According to Fredericks, heightened sensitivity is key to listening to the songs of the Earth. There are no actual “songs”, but they liken themselves to the natural tune of the environment. However, academia effectively compromises this heightened awareness. Not only does it favor empirical science over interpretive constructs, the pressures of universities and corporate America distracts from “listening” to our surrounding landscape. This is what’s been happening to me as I spread myself over school work and job applications. In turn, I’ve become “deaf” to the Earth’s song.

Yet according to Shahjahan, returning to one’s spirituality means being cognizant of the problem and finding ways to reconnect with others in a higher form. And, if the Earth produces songs, then perhaps my stressful situation evokes a particular tone from the Earth. For me, I’ve noticed that it’s windier when I’m happy and calmer when I’m not. For this reason, when I know it’s not windy, I try to walk from class to class to mentally relax against any impending woes. Likewise, in the one hour that I am in church, my concerns about studying disappear and then return as soon as the service finishes. This is all to highlight some unexplainable phenomena about how my environment seems to talk to me even in moments of academic stress.

Michael Jackson - Earth Song (This was the first thing I thought about after reading Fredericks' piece)

Question: How might some major institutions suffer if people increased their “awareness”?

Works Cited:

Fredericks, Bronwyn. "Earth Song as Storywork: Reclaiming Indigenous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAi3VTSdTxU

Knowledges."ResearchGate. N.p., n.d. Web.

Shahjahan, Riyad Ahmed. "Spirituality in the academy: reclaiming from the margins and

evoking a transformative way of knowing the world." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 18.6 (2005): 685-711. Web.