{"id":39981,"date":"2025-01-16T14:02:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T22:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39981"},"modified":"2025-01-16T14:02:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T22:02:03","slug":"on-ranching-and-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/on-ranching-and-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"On Ranching and Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

I grew up on my grandparents\u2019 tiny dirt farm of a ranch in Arizona. Most of life there was hard-fought, trying to cultivate and sustain life and growth in the desert. In many ways, fostering something verdant out of the caliche<\/em> clay of Cochise County seemed an impossible task: fires, floods, competition with big ranchers and developers for water, coyotes<\/em> trafficking in people and drugs cutting our fences, monsoons that destroyed new growth. The list goes on. But something beautiful there took root.<\/p>\n

Today, if you were to drive down the long dirt road to the little plot where my grandfather still lives, you might be surprised to see towering rows of pine trees, desert willows, fruit and nut trees, and the vestiges of where stalls, barns, pens, and coops once stood. It\u2019s something of a surprising oasis. You’d see that certain things grow very well in the desert\u2014they can thrive if given the right conditions. Cultivating an environment for growth took time, and we didn\u2019t just leave organic growth to its own devices–there needed to be systems and structures that supported growth.<\/p>\n

How to Read a Book [1]<\/strong><\/a>, How to Take Smart Notes[2],<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>and The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> offer systems and structures to support learning, discovery, and a different kind of growth. Especially at this early stage of postgraduate investment, the supports offered by Adler, Ahrens, and Elde give me hope that I can make the most of the invitation in a somewhat foreign and sometimes forbidding landscape. Each work shares a common conviction that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Whether reading syntopically, categorizing and retaining knowledge that leads to understanding and the launch of ideas, or cultivating a critical thinking mindset, all require<\/em> and are<\/em> systems that foster growth.<\/p>\n

Applying each of these will no doubt bring about forms of conflict<\/em>. In my work around racial healing and reconciliation, we often remind organizational leaders that the only guarantee that comes with diversity is increased conflict, as individual or group lived experiences and perspectives encounter each other[4]<\/a>. So, too, it will be with cultivating an ecosystem of reading, processing, and understanding that the confluence of these readings fosters. Invariably, there will be internal conflicts of perspective as new understanding is gained or honest conversations are had with the content (Adler notes this especially well). Interpersonal conflict may also arise as one chooses critical thinking and openness to understanding<\/em> more than affirmation<\/em> of preexisting awareness and presumption. If not outright conflict, I anticipate the uncomfortable tensions inherent in trying to press into something different.<\/p>\n

I can also foresee a temptation to allow the structures and systems developed by applying these invitations to become an end in and of themselves. It seems vital to retain a discipline where the means serve the ends\u2014a system for the sake of the system is not the goal. Each of the authors mentioned above has their own reminders of this: reading isn\u2019t just to get through a book, but for the sake of understanding; smart notes aren\u2019t about keeping notes, but advancing ideas and part of the process of writing; critical thinking by itself has benefit, but best functions in community as we cultivate \u201ccritical societies.\u201d It should be no surprise that each author elevates the need for self-discipline in leveraging their approach\u2014some things pay dividends only over time. For me, this element of intentionality of investment, purposefully engaging in new habits and rhythms, will be a challenge\u2014it\u2019s easy to slip into old habits when things feel overwhelming.<\/p>\n

At the risk of continued torture of the earlier metaphor, in much the same way as the little ranch in Arizona took years to cultivate into something more than scrub grass and hard desert clay, I believe developing these skills will take persistence and practice. Rather than seeking to master each of them today,<\/em> I\u2019m hopeful that by the time this part of my formal educational journey is complete, I\u2019ll have learned to use them well and that they will serve me for a lifetime. I hope to look back and see a kind of oasis that only faithful persistence could cultivate.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Adler, Mortimer J, and Charles Van. 1972.\u00a0How to Read a Book : The Art of Getting a Liberal Education<\/em>. New York: Simon & Schuster.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ahrens, So\u0308nke. 2022.\u00a0How to Take Smart Notes : One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking<\/em>. Hamburg, Germany: So\u0308nke Ahrens.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Elder, Linda, and Richard Paul. 2020.\u00a0Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools.<\/em>\u00a08th ed. S.L.: Rowman & Littlefield.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Arrabon. 2025. \u201cIs Diversity the Goal? What Are We Aiming for in the Work of Reconciliation?\u201d Arrabon.com. 2025. https:\/\/arrabon.com\/is-diversity-the-goal\/<\/p>\n

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I grew up on my grandparents\u2019 tiny dirt farm of a ranch in Arizona. Most of life there was hard-fought, trying to cultivate and sustain life and growth in the desert. In many ways, fostering something verdant out of the caliche clay of Cochise County seemed an impossible task: fires, floods, competition with big ranchers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[660,3397],"class_list":["post-39981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adler","tag-dlgp04","cohort-dlgp04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39984,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39981\/revisions\/39984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}