On Tuesday, I attended a lecture given by a Jesuit from San Francisco called "Eco-justice and Creation Care" focusing on how it is indeed a Christian calling to care for the earth and its creatures.
On Wednesday, I first attended a Center for Peacemaking-sponsored Skype lecture of a Hiroshima observer. He discussed how he felt he had lost his humanity when he had to move a Japanese body to eat his lunch and when he realized that the atomic bomb had saved his and his comrades life, seeing the price of his life with his own eyes. This gave me much to think about on what constitutes a person's humanity and at what point one loses it (and gains it back).
After that, I had an interview to live in the Global Village International Learning Community next year, which seeks to facilitate a welcoming environment for international students and a unique cultural experience for American students.
Following this, my roommate and I attended a second Center for Peacemaking event in which we learned about service opportunities abroad and what others have done but primarily, we Skyped with kids in South Africa about what peace means to them, to us, and our goals for our communities and our futures.
Finally, following this, we attended a lecture by the "No Impact Man" - Colin Beavan, who undertook a one-year experiment attempting to leave absolutely no impact on the environment. So much of what he said resounded with me and made so much sense. His description of the different kind of energy he felt when buying secondhand, the benefits of buying food from local farmers, the rediscovery of child-like pleasures, the comfort every human being searches for, his idea that if we can't entirely eliminate our impact, we can work to cancel it out by doing good things for the environment - planting trees, etc... It was very moving and empowering to realize how much we can do.
The week before, I had the ability to listen to a Palestinian speaker talk about how he envisions peace between Palestine and Israel and his efforts to instill peaceful methods of expression among the people there.
All of these experiences reminded me of the deep goodness in people and the inherent urge to connect to, not separate from, others throughout the globe. All of these people care enough about their passions and bringing about change through education and action that they were brought here to Marquette to share their stories. This is amazing to me, and I am so grateful for each of these speakers, for each one has moved me in a different way.
