a ranking

Hi, my name is Aliza.  I didn’t get a chance to go around to these sites until this morning, and all of the inside spaces were locked or occupied, but I can imagine how I would feel in them.  Here is my ranking:

1. Morris Woods
2. The campus center parking lot
3. Room 20, Park Science Building
4. English House 1
5. The glass staircase in Dalton Hall

My comfort level is generally determined by how much space I’m allowed to take up.  I feel most comfortable outside because I can move, and sit, and eat, and play, and sleep, and think with a soft, expansive awareness that I haven’t ever found inside.  I felt more comfortable in the woods than in the parking lot because the ground was softer and I could hear the wind. I got into the Park building, but the lab room was locked.  I sat in the hallway for a little bit.  I like empty linoleum hallways because they remind me of high school.  People who I didn’t know were meeting in English House 1.  I generally feel pretty uncomfortable around people I don’t know and who I have no intention of getting to know.  I left quickly.  Finally, the staircase...it’s last because I despise being around people who are rushed when I’m not.  Staircases are typically filled with people who want to get from one place to another quickly.  Staircases are useful! They aren’t where I go to feel comfortable.

I’m not going to rank plant happiness because I think this task is 1) presumptous and 2) tedious.  Do plants have any understanding of the words happiness and comfort?  I doubt it.  Even if they do, how in the world am I supposed to know these feelings?  Everything needs things in order to thrive.  Plants need the sun and healthy soil.  Humans also need the sun and healthy soil (plus other stuff).  Humans are luckier than plants because when we don’t have the things we need, we can ask for them.  When plants don’t get the things they need, they die.  In this way, I can tell when plants are healthy and unhealthy, but the words healthy and unhealthy mean very different things than comfortable and uncomfortable.  Am I being dense?