When Buell told me that environmental rhetoric was linked to performance by a concentration on rhetoric that “refigure[s] the world” (47) I not only believed him, but have since been looking for this refiguration in the non-theoretical texts we have been reading.

Sand County Almanac set the real precedence for "reconfiguring" my outlook by helping me to view the world through the lens of balance instead of domination.

And, though I was already aware of anthropomorphism (again, thanks to Buell) prior to reading Leopold, his rhetoric helped me really understand it.

And now I am in the middle of Silent Spring and my urge to perform, by way of educated decisions, rather than continue to be passive, by way of being careless and lazy, is growing.

I am still very ignorant, mind you, about how all of this works, but I think I have finally been moved to performance...I credit this, obviously, to Buell, and Leopold, and Carson.

Now the hard part is figuring out "the next step" or, more specifically, what I am capable of doing to contribute. I mentioned to Eric the other day about getting a recycle bin for our house. Epic, I know. But, really, just talking about doing that is a step forward. Don't look down on me with your high and mighty enviromentally-minded ways...I am new at all this!

And further suggestions beyond the recycle bin are (greatly) appreciated.

Also, I want everyone to know that I am really enjoying reading your blog posts. Sometimes the language that you use is poetic, sometimes it is scientific, but it always reflects the different rhetorics I am reading in Buell and Carson and the others. I find their texts resonating in our posts and it is helping me synthesize all of these new ideas. Thank you.