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Humans of Houghton: Elijah Tangenberg

Elijah Tangenberg is a senior at Houghton, majoring in political science with a minor in economics. After Houghton, Elijah says that he hopes to do work related to water supply and national security. He explains that some of the goal with this is to “try to help us live more sustainably, while also preserving most of our current uses for water.” Elijah tells me that he first started thinking about water when he was growing up in California. “I think that my dad unintentionally started a water management mafia,” he jokes, “it’s a thing that he got really into when we moved to California. He got a job with the Council for Watershed Health in Los Angeles. I spent most of my childhood talking with my dad about water issues—things he was looking at at work, really frustrating things that were happening with policy at work, really cool things that had happened and how they worked.” Even though water was something Elijah thought and talked about a lot growing up, he says he didn’t initially think of focusing on water as an area of study in college. “I was actually much more interested in international relations,” he says, “but I took a class with Doctor Ronald Oakerson my second semester of sophomore year, and when we started talking about water issues I suddenly started getting really interested.”

Elijah tells me that some of the unique challenges of water particularly appealed to him—such as public perception about feasible water supply solutions, balancing the expense of different methods, and how water behaves differently from other natural resources. “It does things that no other natural resource we use does,” he says. “Like for fuel, gas, whatever, you burn it and it’s gone, it’s some other form, it’s in our atmosphere, but we’ll never see it become oil or wood again. We can kind of guess how those processes work, and try to encourage them, but it doesn’t happen nearly instantly. For water, it just falls from the sky, goes through a river, goes through the ocean, and can be back above our heads the next day. It’s really flexible.”

         In his spare time Elijah likes to work on his hobbies. He tells me about the three hobbies that he’s spent the most time on: journal systems, music, and reading ancient Japanese and Chinese poetry. Elijah explains that he got into haiku because of his cousin, and from haiku he made his way to ancient Chinese poetry. “Ancient Chinese culture is something that I’ve always been a little bit interested in,” he says. “Partly because of their culture’s relationship to government, but also natural spaces at the same time.” Elijah explains that the way the ancient Chinese related to their natural resources and to their government is often expressed in their poetry. “What the poems convey is this kind of embattlement between natural elements—this transcendence of nature, these divine forces—in connection to their relationship to government, their families, as well as their relationship to their selves. And all of those elements together have just really spoken to me as I’ve gone through political science, since frankly no other culture has poems about government—just even saying that makes people laugh.” However, Elijah says he thinks that connecting political science to art is really important. “Without the artistic element you lose a lot of creativity,” he says, “especially with natural resource policy, where you need to be balancing so many different needs at the same time, that really require really creative solutions—not just so that you can get to a really great outcome, but so that you can get to a survivable outcome. You need to have this respect for your subject that can only really be conveyed in art.”

         When I ask Elijah if he has any advice for readers, he says that a practice he’s come to appreciate a lot recently is spending time with things that are difficult. “So,” Elijah explains, “if there’s a subject that’s really difficult for you, kind of daring yourself to spend time with it, and to really get to know it. For an English student that might just be a paragraph in an essay they’re writing that they absolutely hate. For a math student, that could be spending your time with an equation or a theorem that you do not understand. I think our instinct a lot of the time is just to get it done and get it out of the way as best we can. But I really find that reflecting on an object or reflecting on a place, an event, or a lesson, can be really enriching.” Elijah explains that the goal of the time spent with the difficult thing is not to accomplish something particular with it, but just to experience it. “Find an object, idea, lesson, something you hate,” he says, “and for about ten or fifteen minutes, just sit with it, don’t try to do anything with it, but just allow it to speak to you.”

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Opinions

The Plain Art of Happiness

In general, I think most people would say they want to live a happy life. However, most of the people I talk to on a day-to-day basis don’t really give me the impression that they’re living a life of happiness. Popular answers to the question, “How are you doing?” include “I’m stressed,” and, perhaps even more frequently, “I feel like death.” Now I’m not talking about people who are experiencing extreme suffering, just ordinary, relatively decent life. People can easily say what’s wrong in their life, and how they wish things were, but rarely do people enumerate to me all of the happiness they are experiencing.

We all have these ideas about what will make us happy. We think, if only I can get an A in this class, if only I can get this cute guy to notice me, if only my roommate will stop making such a racket at night when I’m asleep, then I will be happy. But, in my experience, even when these things are realized, I’m not perfectly satisfied. Once one goal is met, I can immediately fix my mind on something else that I simply must have in order to be happy. The fact of the matter is we could go on like this forever without ever allowing ourselves to be happy in the present.

While it’s good and important to have hopes and goals, I think we need to focus a little more on all the good things that are happening in the present. When we recognize that things don’t have to be perfect, and what we have now really is good, then we can have joy.

I think some of our wrong conceptions about happiness come across even in our language about it. We place our happiness on external things that happen to us, rather than our internal state. We say, “It’s snowing outside and that makes me happy,” as though it is the snow that forces us to be happy, and not our choice to respond to the snow in a positive way.

There was a Greek Stoic philosopher named Epictetus, who held that we should only let our feelings be affected by things that we can control. He said we should, “Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.” If we recognize that the way our life is going is good, and decide that we are satisfied with it, then we will be much happier.

This idea ties in with something I started doing a few years ago. I’m terrible at making decisions—the knowledge that I could miss out on something good by choosing the other cripples me. And then, when what I choose isn’t perfect, it’s easy for me to imagine how good the other option could have been, and idealize a reality that doesn’t exist. So, I resolved that whatever decision I made I would decide to be happy with it. Even if it wasn’t everything I might have hoped, I would recognize the goodness in it and be happy.

Sometimes all we must do to be happy is recognize that our feelings are our own. We don’t have to let ourselves be buffeted by things that happen to us. Of course, you will be affected by things that happen in your life, but you have control over how much you react, and in what way. You don’t have to go out searching for the illusive thing that is “happiness,” because the tools to make it are already in your hands.

Ally is a first-year student majoring in English and math.

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International News

International // Election Rumors Swirl in Liberia

When questions are raised about the legitimacy of an election it can cause doubts among voters about the efficacy of the electoral system.  In Liberia, the National Elections Commission (NEC) has received 56 complaints about the current presidential election so far. After the first round of voting on October 10th, several political parties have expressed concern over alleged misconduct in the voting process. Since no candidate received an absolute majority, under the Liberian constitution, a runoff election between the two forerunning candidates will be held. The final voting on November 7th will decide between George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change and current vice president Joseph Boakai, of the Unity Party.

The New York Times reports party complaints of late poll opening, that NEC never counted the ballot papers issued, and even an instance of ballot stuffing by a presiding officer. With these questions about the electoral system, it is unsure how many voters will participate in the next round of voting. Rodney Sieh, editor of the Liberian daily newspaper Front Page Africa, told the Times that voters are “very disenchanted by these stories” and he stressed the question of whether they will vote in the second round.

Most recently the Unity Party, which has been in power since 2006 with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has added its complaints to the other allegations raised. On October 28th Front Page Africa reported the Boakai campaign confirmed that the Unity Party has filed a complaint with the NEC. This action has raised some concern that the Unity Party would threaten to boycott the election. Front Page Africa reports that it would not be an unprecedented move in the country’s elections. In 2011 the Coalition for Democratic Change threatened to boycott the election over allegations about the results. This happened after their party’s candidate lost the first round of voting to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

However, Mo Ali, the Unity Party’s Official Campaign Spokesperson, emphasizes that boycotting the election is not a consideration. “We are going to participate in the runoff and we should all continue with our campaign,” he told Front Page Africa, “Those that are engaged in sending out such information are detractors that are intending to create the situation in which our partisans and supporters will not turn out to vote.”

The Coalition for Democratic Change, despite having raised objections after losing the elections in both 2005 and 2011, has remained quiet with allegations this time around. Their candidate, George Weah, is currently in the lead with 38.4% of the vote.

The democratic form of government is still a relatively new development in Liberia. According to the U.S. Department of State’s fact sheet on its relationship with Liberia.  The country began as a settlement of the American Colonization Society, and they declared independence from the society in 1847. From 1876 until a coup in 1980 the country was dominated by the True Whig Party. Then in 2005, after a series of military and transitional governments, the current government system was formed. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first democratically elected woman head of state in Africa. This current election represents Liberia’s first time replacing a democratically elected president with another democratically elected president. Whatever the outcome of the election, it is an important time in Liberia’s national history.

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Campus News

“See You At The Pole” Unites Campus

Every year on a morning in September, students in countries across the world gather at their school flagpoles to pray for their communities. Middle schools, high schools, and colleges alike have participated in the event, called See You at the Pole. since it began 1990. The event was first staged by a few teenagers in the United States, who felt burdened for their schoolmates. On a Saturday evening in 1990, they drove to several schools and gathered around the flagpoles to pray together. Since then, See You At The Pole has grown into an international event with more than 3 million participants across more than 20 countries.

“The main goal is to gather together to pray for the country, our communities, and schools,” said Andrew Sherman, SGA Executive Officer of Spiritual Life, who helped to organize the event this year. But besides offering a chance to pray and connect with fellow students, SGA also arranged to provide free coffee and donuts for attendees.

Students who have gone in the past admit that donuts may have been their original motivation to go, but that it was the power of the event that had the greatest impact on them. “I had heard there would be donuts there, and that seemed sufficient motivation to get up extra early and stand in penguin huddles around the flagpole,” said Jordan Trautwein ‘19, who had also attended See You At The Pole events in the past. “Once I was there my focus shifted to the true purpose of the event.”

She went on to add that See You at the Pole was one of the first events she went to at Houghton, and she continued to be amazed by how welcoming people were. “There aren’t a lot of times you get to gather with a bunch of strangers on a misty morning to talk about your hopes and concerns for the semester,” she said. “People shared honestly and prayed sincerely.  It was a poignant example of how Houghton is not only a school, but also a form of congregation.”

This feeling of connection and congregation struck her as the most important aspect of the event. “A huge focus in the news, both national and global, is how divided people are,” Trautwein said. “Unfortunately, the Church is not always above such division. See You At the Pole is a practice in unity, encouraging us to bring our different issues to the same God.”

This “practice in unity” gathered a large group of students early on Wednesday morning. Students came together at the flagpole, enjoyed donuts and cups of coffee, and took time to pray for the coming school year, for everyone at Houghton College, and for broader issues around the world.

Andrew Sherman said that Houghton College plans to participate in this event for years to come. Students will continue to have the opportunity to participate in this student-founded event, which, as Trautwein says, “doesn’t rely on older generations to pray on our behalf, but calls students to be involved in their community’s issues and their own faith.”