Ernesto Mayans: What is the environment?

     Conversing with Ernesto, both as a group and individually, was something I will never forget. He is very engaging, bringing everyone into the conversation and slowly drawing out their points of view; even those who are timid and soft-spoken cannot resist taking part. He was ready and able to converse on any subject, from art, to the environment, to philosophy. Moreover, he has friends in every field doing incredible things, and he is always excited to tell you about them.

     Not surprisingly, my favorite time with Ernesto was talking to him about philosophy. He introduced me to a school of thought called Phenomenology, gave me many recommendations on philosophical works that I should read, and provided a very realistic and down-to-earth approach to a subject that is often caught up in abstractions and theoretical discussions.

The best philosophical conversation I had with him was one pertaining to the environment. It began with him posing the question, “What is the environment?," a seemingly simply question that proved very difficult to answer. After making several attempts at giving a definition of the environment, only to have Ernesto politely shoot each one down, I finally said something along the lines of “our definition is always changing”, and instantaneously his eyes lit up. “Yes,” he said, because the environment is always changing, and before we can effectively address the environmental problems we have, we must first realize that the environment is change. To try and define the environment as something constant and absolute is both futile and silly, for such a definition would be missing the core idea of what the environment is, which is a dynamic balance of life and energy that is constantly in flux. Things live and die, energy is used and released, reactions occur, and all the while a delicate balance of interdependence is maintained; this is far from being static or constant. The idea was very mind-altering for me, and from the look in Ernesto’s eyes I had the feeling that had deliberately led me down this path of thought hoping I would come to this realization.

Ernesto was one of a kind, as they say, and I am very thankful for the time that I was able to spend with him.