New Member Spotlight: Jennifer Morrow

Joined HumanistsMN: July 2022

Profession/Residence: I have been a native plant landscaper for about 15 years. I closed my one-woman operation this past fall and am beginning the process of discovering what my next career will be. I read The Future We Choose and Uninhabitable Earth last winter and was filled with a need to pivot to work in reducing energy consumption. Step one was winterizing at home, so in the meantime I am kept plenty busy caretaking the three duplexes my husband and I own. (I’m the handywoman in our family!) We live in one of them in the Cathedral-Hill/Summit University neighborhood. Ultimately I’m hoping to work in alternative energy production or energy reduction.

How she found us: I joined HumanistsMN after discovering the group online. I had read Living the Secular Life a few years back and identified a lack of community in my own life. Being childless and secular and working in small businesses cuts out a lot of the natural community-building avenues. After attending Jerry Smith’s “Why Humanism?” presentation, I decided I had found what I was looking for and immediately went home and joined. That weekend I joined the Humanists in Action group at the Our Future: March for Abortion Access rally and recently joined the Humanists in Action committee. Activism and social experiences are the two things I was looking for and have found here.

Her journey to humanism: I was raised Catholic and by high school we had moved to the Twin Cities and joined a seemingly liberal church on the University of Minnesota campus. I was part of a young adult group and really enjoyed that community. I even became a liturgist. My freshman year in college I decided to run for the church council. I was told I would have to wait until I was older. It struck me as odd that a campus community church would not include a representative of that very community. It was enough to push me away and I never went back. I received a B.S. in Environmental Studies with an emphasis on water resources in 1999. In the time I was at the U, I had the chance to stand back and examine what I had learned being part of the Catholic church and being part of the scientific community, and I chose the natural world. Twenty years ago or so, an acquaintance and I discussed my lack of belief in a deity and my love of the natural world and he suggested I look into humanism. I wish I had taken his advice sooner but I’m glad I’m finally here.