The venue for my final writing of FoodWISE was the Goetheanum’s beautiful Glashaus in Dornach, Switzerland, from September 2019-March, 2019. On sabbatical, I tried to use a Goethean approach (the hallmark of all that happens in the Agriculture and Natural Sciences sections of the Glashaus). As I write here (from a forthcoming article in Elemente,  “Anthroposophy’s Double Gesture: Dan McKanan’s Eco-Alchemy and Its Meaning for Goethean Science”),

I find the writing process to be similar to “Goethean conversation” given by Marjorie Spock. (1983) Spock talked about enlivened thinking and intuitive perception made possible by a Goethean approach to conversation. She wrote, “Thoughts must first be conceived…then brooded out in the spirits of the thinkers [bringing] a brightening of consciousness to render the soul a dwelling place hospitable to insight. (Spock 1983, Part 2). Eurythmist and educator Michael Chapitis has expanded on some of Spock’s ideas (2019), outlining this approach: prepare for the writing session, gathering all that you need to self-organize; sit (or stand) with your material; allow yourself to be completely open, completely empty; and, embrace the flow of ideas in writing.

I hope to bring some of this approach to writing to my students at Western… in the writing proficiency classes I teach.