week eight response

This week I have been spending a lot of time gathering supplies and planning for my plant journal. Though I know a fair amount about PNW native plants, I feel like the information gained through Keeping it Living and our other texts has been invaluable to so much -- this course, the particular project, but also how I approach and think about plants in my day to day life.

When thinking about my experiences with plants, this course, and Keeping it Living, I keep going back to Philip Drucker's work; particularly, his introduction of the idea of ownership and privilege. Up until this point, I had been thinking about the Earth (and its inhabitants - plants, animals, etc) in separate systems -- an "us vs. them" perspective. I think it is so important to critically examine why I was thinking that way, and why many non-Indigenous people instinctively feel that way as well. When I actually go out into the field to collect the plants for my project (I need them to be fresh, so it will be closer to the due date), I want to be prepared to interact with the environment on a fluid level. I want to rid myself of the European concept of "the plants are there because they are there" entirely. Everything interacts, and everything that has happened in the formation of this land has contributed to the way that the canopy, the forest floor, and everything in between exist now. I feel like this may be common sense, but it is something that I honestly never considered past face value until this course. I think that this may be the most important concept that I've drawn from the course, and I want to explore it in a deeper manner in my final reflection.