By Ranae Lenor Hanson

Come discuss “Core Samples” with Anna Farro Henderson at the St. Anthony Park Branch Library on Nov. 22. Read the book ahead of time if you can; show up even if you can’t.

Henderson will help you open your heart and your mind to the world as it is and as it can, with loving attention, become. Quite likely, her group activity will move you along your own creative path.

“Core Samples” subtitle, “A Climate Scientist’s Experiments in Politics and Motherhood,” has truth — but the truth may be squinting. We can’t ask much of a subtitle, but we can question it.

Is Henderson primarily “a climate scientist?” As a researcher, she carved a path brilliantly (without stage lights) through glaciers and desert lakebeds where few women had trodden before. Still, is climate scientist her primary title?

Then consider: Did Henderson experiment in politics? She was in the thick of both the Mark Dayton and the Al Franken messes and successes. But would we say that Dayton and Franken were “experimenting”?

Henderson balanced tender new parenthood with raw political drama, carrying her nursing paraphernalia while wearing a suit and high heels.

After success in science and politics, Henderson began writing, because stories might help the future more than an ice ax or a piece of legislation. She wrote about her varied, intertwining and (sometimes) conflicting roles with heart and clear vision.

Yet. Would a male scientist’s or politician’s parenting role be highlighted on the cover of his book? Maybe it should be in the subtitle of every book written by a person of any gender. Maybe then every book would be as honest as Henderson’s is.

At a time when we each need companions to navigate a damaged physical world and a tumultuous political scene, Henderson has stepped up.

Both through writing and through friendship, Anna’s been such a companion to me. I’m a bit jealous that I can’t be with Anna that day, but I’m happy that you can. Join the Changing Times Book Group to accompany Anna; through her writing, she has reached her hand out to you. 

Ranae Lenor Hanson, author of “Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress,” was a long-time neighbor in St. Anthony Park. She now lives near her adult children on the West Coast.

“Funny, moving, and eminently worth reading. Anna Farro Henderson’s deep encounters with Big Science and Big Bureaucracy will help you understand why progress on matters of life and death can be so maddeningly slow; her encounters with herself may help you figure out how to live your own life.”

 —  Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org and Third Act

Changing Times Book Group

Saturday, Nov. 22, 3–4:30 p.m.
St. Anthony Park Branch Library, 2245 Como Ave.

Meet Anna Farro Henderson, author of Core Samples: A Climate Scientist’s Experiments in Politics and Motherhood. Co-sponsored by Transition Town — All Saint Anthony Park and the St. Paul Public Library, the book group focuses on environmental and social justice topics. All are welcome, one title at a time. More information at TransitionASAP.org/changing-times.

Headshot photo cutline: Anna Farro Henderson is an award-winning writer, Ph.D. scientist, and environmental policy expert. She is a fellow at the UMN Institute on the Environment, teaches at the Loft Literary Center, and works in climate advocacy. Submitted photo.