Jenna Myers's blog

The book I chose to analyze is called Miss Rumphius written by Barbara Cooney. A summary of the story is about a little girl named Alice and her grandfather would tell her stories about living in faraway places. She tells him that when she grows older she would like to travel to faraway places and live by the sea. But her grandfather tells her that she must also make the world more beautiful. The story continues when she is all grown up and begins traveling to faraway places such as tropical islands, mountains, jungles, and deserts. Then after her travels she finds a little house by the sea to live in and she plants flowers in her garden. After she plants the flowers she becomes ill and stays in her home for most of spring. When she was well enough the next time spring came in she had lupines in her garden. She realizes that in order to make the world more beautiful she will plant lupine seeds everywhere so that they will bloom the following spring. When spring came around there were lupines everywhere and everyone called her The Lupine Lady. At the end of the book she tells her niece that she must also do something to make the world more beautiful.

After reading The Ecological Thought by Timothy Morton I was focusing in on when he discussed nature and art as well as the idea of coexistence. At the beginning he says “Ecological thinking is to do with art, philosophy, literature, music and culture…Ecology includes all the ways we imagine we live together. Ecology is profoundly about coexistence” (4). I completely agree with his statement because nature can be found in all different aspects of life especially when it comes to thinking of objects at natural instead of man-made. On page 8 he goes into talking about residents not wanting solar panels because they don’t look natural or wind turbines will spoil the view. Renewable energy is something I’ve recently been passionate about and in my opinion I believe that incorporating solar panels and wind turbines into our environment is beautiful and is natural. The point of using solar panels and wind turbines is by harnessing Earths natural resources, which should be seen as beautiful. 

View of Lake Delavan

House that looks similar to my old one

Delavan Lake Yacht Club where I attended camp

When I was first born my family bought a house up in Wisconsin along Lake Delavan. My family and I would drive the two hours from Chicago to Delavan and drive down narrow dirt roads until we finally reached the home. The house was considered to be located on the Island of Lake Delavan. The house was located in a somewhat secluded area with only 2 houses located in the block of land. Even though there weren’t many people around for me to play with I still enjoyed exploring the areas around my house and I still had my neighbors. My sister and I would visit our neighbors often because the family had a son who was roughly my age. We would either play in the house or go outside and explore.

Home is the Environment

To me, home is a place where I feel safe and I am in a loving and warm environment. When I was younger I only saw myself as having one home. However, over the years I have realized that I can have multiple homes. Home is not just a building where I live in. Home to me can consist of anything: location, people, and the environment. In my mind I have multiple homes: Chicago, Wisconsin, Bryn Mawr, and New Zealand. Besides locality, the people around me make me feel at home. Biologically, my family consists of my mom, dad, sister, two uncles, two aunts, and two cousins. My family has always seemed small, however I realized that there are more people in my life who I consider my family.

I originally chose the photo for my avatar because it was taken outside by the sunken garden which is one of my favorite places to go on campus. It is a great area to sit when its warm and I can take in the beauty of the campus and the surrounding area. The other option I had was a photo of me with a wind turbine, which I have always had a love for (I studied the mechanics behind them in my last 360 on Renewable Energy). However I wasn't able to change the photo for some reason.