Susan Anderson's blog

Today I was thinking that Bryn Mawr is really a garden.  The nature around us is not really wild, but placed in certain ways to make it appealing to people walking on it.  It is a very natural garden, certainly.  It reminds me of the English gardens around the time Versailles was built.  Because Versailles was such a big feat all to make Louis XIV look powerful, the English responded to it by saying that their king did not need such a grand waste of money to prove himself to his people.  The English particularly seemed to despise the sculped, geometrical gardens as seen in Versailles.  So, they made their gardens extremely natural.  They were not wild, but designed to look wild.  I guess Bryn Mawr is not this designed wildness of the English, nor the unnatural sculpture of French gardens.  It is a happy medium.

I found this image online and thought how appropriate!  A strong Bryn Mawr female telling us to vote.

And then some radical feminist part of me thought: "She is telling us to vote, to play along with the male created systems!  And she's holding a gun!  How violent and male!"

And then I laughed at myself.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-suddenly-realizes-this-just-going-to-be-a-t,30195/

I enjoy reading The Onion, and I just thought this was a great way of looking at the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.   I hope they are right and that people are starting to realize there is something wrong with the environment now. I feel like denial about global warming is just an excuse to ignore regulations from the EPA. Personally, politicians who bash the EPA annoy me.  They say these regulations constrain business, but if we bring the world down, then we (and those businesses)are going down with it (not to be too tragic).

Today, as it was the last day of Family Weekend, my parents were here.  We had brunch at Wyndham, which was a pleasant affair, and then my mother suggested we go walk the labyrinth before they left.  So, of we went.  In my head I was thinking, "How convenient!  I can multitask!  Parent weekending and site visiting at the same time!"  So, we walked the labyrinth together, I said goodbye to my parents, and I sat on the bench near the labyrinth for a while longer.  As I was sitting there, I realized what a difference being alone versus being with other people made.  I mean, the whole time going through the labyrinth none of us were speaking, so it wasn't the noise level or the presence of conversation.  I guess it was just sharing a space with an outsider, the feeling of presenting something that I love to people who do not really understand it yet.  There is a certain nervousness like when you peek over the shoulder of a person reading a book you reccommended, thinking, "Like it!"

Today it is cold, it is dark, but it does not seem like there is a catastrophic storm coming.  When I leave the dorm, all I hear is rumors about how classes might be canceled.  I sit outside, on my bench near the labrynth, and all I see is a gray day.  It is interesting thinking about how this place will look in about twelve hours.  The slight breezes that push the leaves today will morph into monumental gales that will make the trees look like they are on roller coasters.  I've heard that no trees will most likely fall down, but I wonder if the landscape at the labrynth will change by the next time I come here.  I guess I'll just have to enjoy the view I have for now, before all of the brightly colored leaves are blown away.  

I come back here every year.  It is my place in the summertime.  I can already see the maize climbing the hillside.  It will feed my family for many months.  I will take care of this blessing from Mother Earth, as Mother Earth takes care of me.  I turn back to the present day's work.  My family and I must set up our living arrangements before it is too dark.  We keep this cycle going every year, moving from place to place month to month.  I know it will stay the same forever.  Me, my family, and the wilderness season after season.

Wet bench.  Cold.  Cold.  Wet.  Rain falling down.  Do I really have to stay the whole hour?  Yes.  Yes I do.  Leaves and rain fall together.  Check the time.  People walk by.  Trees sway.  The nature looks nice even if the sky looks gloomy.  Miserable is a word that we use to describe the weather, but it really describes how humans feel in the weather.  Check the time.  Pay attention to the sounds.  The soft patter of rain dominates every other sound.  On listening further, I can hear the wind and the rustling of the trees.  Snyder.  Worms coming out in the rain and then decaying on the sidewalk.  Gross.  Next time I'll need a thicker sweater.  Cold.  Check the time.  Time's up.  Meh, this wasn't so bad.  

A first attempt at an hour’s observation brings only awkwardness.  In the night I venture forth determined to find a blissful solitude in the darkness.  I reason that the night is for indoor activities, not natural, and I will defeat the crowds by having my hour out in the night.  I walk up the hill to the labyrinth.  I see a couple gazing at the stars.  I walk quickly away. 

The next afternoon, I try again.  I go out when the weather is beautiful, when I figure everyone would be outside.  I reach the labyrinth and I am the only one there.  I take one hour letting the warm sun and the cool breezes soak into my skin.  No one comes.  I am with nature while the rest of the world is stuck in their dorm missing this glorious feast of the senses.

The thing that struck me most about my experience in my spot today was coming back inside.  Outside, my hour was peaceful.  It was sunny and there was a light breeze.  I was for the most part left alone by the labrynth, just relaxing and observing nature.  As soon as I started to walk back to my dorm, though, my inner monologue started reciting all of the things I had to do when I got back.  I stepped back into my technology and my homework without a thought, leaving the peace I experienced back where I found it.  I had an epiphany while reading my art history textbook that it did not have to be this way.  I could bring the good feelings I had outside into my attitude even when I was doing work.  Needless to say, I was much less stressful after that thought.  

This is a visualization of how groups of buildings at Bryn Mawr relate to the general flow of activities. It is from the website of the company that updated Bryn Mawr's layout. This image caught my eye because it spoke to the part of my brain that likes to categorize things in order to understand them.  I like how the colors define the places of purposeful activity, but that the white spaces, or Terra Incognita, serve as places where we are free to wander.  I have chosen as my spot the place near the labrynth where we met for class on Tuesday.  It is a nice place just over the border between the defined, colored parts of this map and the blank Terra Incognita.  It is secluded, but I do not feel cut off from the world.  It has wonderful natural aspects to gaze at, but it is not strictly wilderness.