Paradigm Carnival

The following is a supplement question from Williams College:

Imagine looking through a window at any environment that is particularly significant to you. Reflect on the scene, paying close attention to the relation between what you are seeing and why it is meaningful to you. Please limit your statement to 300 words.

This response certainly won't fit into 300 words when I free-write it. What an obscure question. I don't feel like I have that many places that are significant to me aside from my own house which I've lived in for my entire life. I really want to say that I'm looking across a landscape or scene that is truly sustainable. I guess I might say that I'm looking across a farmer's market. It is certainly a scene where I feel hopeful. I go through my days with constant concern about the environment and am bothered by every piece of trash that I throw away which will go to a landfill and by every piece of food in my kitchen, wondering how far it came to sit on my table and what impact it had on the people that had to grow it and transport it simply for my benefit. But at the farmer's market I'm so glad to see other people patronizing it, and I love helping the local farmers in any way I can. I find it quite comforting to see people going from booth to booth talking to each other, discussing the crops with the farmers, and coming home with fresh produce, bread, and meat. Going to the supermarket is surprisingly impersonal compared to the hustle and bustle of the farmer's market where people seem happy to be there and talk to their neighbors. The market makes me feel closer to nature--when we go to the supermarket, most fruits are available year round, but very few crops actually grow year-round. At the market I know that I realize (and I hope that others do too) that we have to wait until summer for most of our vegetables and that lettuce grows in the cooler seasons. Everything tastes cleaner when I buy it from the market-- I don't worry as much about harmful pesticides, all the food is fresher since it's come from a shorter distance, and it's grown in more natural conditions. In all of my work in environmentalism, I'm often bombarded with all of the problems of ecological problems, but it isn't very often that I get to see solutions to these problems. The farmer's market lets me lay eyes on solutions that humans can come up with to fix our problems. That was a little more than 300 words. :)