On the blind field shuttle tour of Bryn Mawr Campus, Carmen showed us that being blind does not mean being impaired but possessing a different way to perceive the world.

I was first at the back of the line. I could feel (or I thought I felt) the girl behind me shaking as we walked in the woods. I could hear a big humming engine right beside me as we crossed the street. Any small vibrations turned into big swings in the back of the line, as I consistently stepped on and off the paved trial onto the grass during the “peaceful” later part of the shuttle. Though I didn’t open my eyes during the whole trip, I couldn’t keep myself from aimless waving one of my arm for branches or imaginary obstacles. My shoulder is now a bit sore from all the sketching and waving in the air.

On the way back, I was at the beginning of the line. Knowing the route I was going to walk on, I felt easier and paid more attention to the flickering of lights on my eyelids.  I even noticed that the paved trial on front of the English house was more “rough” than the paved trail parallel to senior row. However, it was still terrifying when I heard a car shooting through my front as Carmen called everyone to cross the street again.

Last year at this time, I was recording an album.  After we played the same song over, and over, and over, again my friend would say: “Ehhh, we just gotta let it gel.”  Sometimes I think school is sort of like recording that album.  We do the same thing over, and over, and over again and doesn’t always look good or sound good or feel good until after we let gel.  You have to take a break to figure out what still needs working on.  It was nice to have a break from reading, discussing, and sitting in chairs this week because it meant that there was time to let things gel.  I need more gelling time.  I suppose that this is what the future is for.  What started gelling for me this week was largely unrelated to what we were doing together.  At first, I felt a little guilty for not focusing on class.  I don’t anymore.  

My daughter-in-law, who is a psychiatry resident @ Penn (and a graduate both of Haverford and of The Story of Evolution/The Evolution of Stories), sent me this NYTimes opinionator piece on Philosophy and the Poetic Imagination. It put me in mind of some of our earlier conversations about language, and how we read it. Thought it might interest some of you, of the more poetic bent....

Well, here is my - perhaps subversive! - question - perhaps jumping the gun on our discussion tomorrow - prompted by the first two pages of the second half of the Coetzee book!! 

What is this class really about???

Is it about ecology?

Or is the real topic hiding right there in plain sight: is it really about how to be academic?

Excuse me if this is obvious! And excuse my punctuation! Dashes - and exclamation points - are probably not very academic!!!

What is the form? and what is the content?

What am I really asking?

(perhaps I alologize again: a bit punch drunk as the end of the semester approaches!)

When I was trying to come up with something to write on Tuesday night, I saw, in the corner of Ecological Imagining's homepage, the title of a new blog post that sounded interesting. It was about smoking and Bryn Mawr, which are things that I just read about in the book about Bryn Mawr, Offerings to Athena: 125 Years at Bryn Mawr. So, I was really excited to write about this, and I did. But when I went to comment on the post, I realized that it had been made on a different part of Serendip, for a class called "Walled Women." Serendip seems like a little corner of the Internet, just for me and Ecological Imaginings, but it isn't, and I wish I could meet and comment on the posts of all the lovely Mawrters who are also on Serendip. But, since that is unlikely, I will just post the link to the article I read and my response.

/exchange/smoking-bryn-mawr-colleges-campus-representing-power-student-participation-student-government-associ

A couple of days ago, we read Timothy Morton's "Introduction: Toward a Theory of Ecological Criticism." Although we discussed in class yesterday that Morton's dense and hard to read language makes sense, because his work is literary criticism, not an explanation of a theory he came up with, I still have some issues with the style of the excerpt. Mainly, my issue with the style is that it is what it says it is: an introduction. I dislike the style of introductions. They simultaneously summarize the work they preface, and their authors try to weave a separate narrative throughout the introduction. But this makes me impatient. Introductions just drag on and on, almost getting to the point, and then digressing to talk about something unrelated to fill the pages and sound impressive. Introduction just make me want to either get to the darn book, and turn me completely off of it. With this introduction, I just wanted to read the book, and get past the fluff. I appreciated what Morton was trying to do, and I'm certainly glad that I didn't have to read his whole book for class in one night. However, that doesn't mean I am at all satisfied with introductions, especially the one at hand. I just wanted to read what it was failing to summarize eloquently and actually find out the content.

I enjoyed our two shared rambles this week; thank you for venturing outside w/ me!
Next week we conclude our work together. Here's the plan for our upcoming shared events:

By 5 p.m. Thursday, record on-line your final set of weekly observations of your adopted on-campus "site."

By Sunday @ 5, post on-line your reflections about our two excursions this week. (Max, who was unable to join us today, is hoping to "experience" the blind field shuttle on Serendip, so please think of your posting as an attempt to include her in that activity.)

For Monday's class,
* srucara will select our site

* please come ready to tell me what groups you've organized yourselves into, for our final teach-in

* review the instructions for completing your checklist and portfolio:
/exchange/courses/ecolit/f12/portfolio
and come w/ any questions about the process

* please also read, in preparation for our discussion,
Timothy Morton's Introduction to Ecology Without Nature: Re-thinking Environmental Aesthetics
(it's in our password protected file: /exchange/courses/ecolit/f12/readings )

* On Wednesday, we'll do final evaluations, and then have
a teach-in, sharing with one another what we have been learning...

* My last day on campus will be the following Wed, Dec. 19.
Before then, you need to schedule a final writing conference w/ me.
Please come to that having reviewed my comments on your last paper,
as well as your other work for the semester,