Carolyn Raffensperger, Science and Environmental Health Network

Carolyn Raffensperger is executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, based in Ames, Iowa, which advocates the wise application of science to efforts to protect the environment and public health.

When I worked for the Sierra Club in Chicago I often had interns who were getting their environmental feet wet. For the first month of their internships they did everything I did. Some days that meant meeting with the governor and some days that meant stuffing envelopes. On that continuum, Thursday was a stuff-envelope day for me. I love having that kind of rhythm. There are many weeks when I am on the road giving speeches. Alternately, there are some days when I need to sign payroll checks (one of my tasks today), prepare for staff meetings, and file legal documents. I had a lot to do today to prepare for our staff retreat -- make beds, cook, sort materials I'd been saving for each person.

SEHN's first office, set up in 1994, was in Washington, D.C. Two years later, I moved back to our farm in North Dakota, where I continued to work for SEHN. Email, faxes, and an airport two hours away allowed me to be back on the farm with my husband. As you can imagine, the rhythm of my work in D.C. was quite different from the rhythm in North Dakota. Power lunches in North Dakota meant taking food out to the men on tractors rather than drinking three martinis with Very Important People. In North Dakota, it's almost impossible to maintain a sense of self-importance or any delusions about who or what is powerful. We all know that the weather and the landscape are more powerful than we are. I sometimes wonder if those in D.C. think they control the weather.

We used to have SEHN staff meetings in North Dakota. Fortunately, everyone on the staff was willing to fly to Fargo and drive out to the farm. North Dakota was a little exotic. Now the staff and the board president are coming to Iowa. Over the weekend we will tell stories, philosophize, and strategize. Too often I feel out of rhythm, out of harmony when all I am doing is public speaking. Being on a stage speaking about the environment to a big audience is one of the great pleasures of my work, but I am always mindful that the Hutterite pastors are required to spend as much time cleaning barns as they do speaking in public. There is a good and holy balance to changing diapers, scrubbing toilets, working in a soup kitchen, and public speaking.

The pleasure in the rhythm of this coming weekend is the time out with dearly beloved colleagues. It's a time for the community of SEHN to reflect, in the middle of winter, in the middle of the heartland, in the middle of our hectic schedules. Oh, joy.