Beginnings

Beginnings 9.11.07

I always say that I feel / see God while watching the sunset sitting by the water near a reasonably polluted city, not while sitting in church listening to the preacher or reading the Gospels. John R. Stilgoe explains my idea with more precise and intelligible words in the first chapter of his book Outside Lies Magic. His idea purports the necessity for anyone to get outside and look—actually see—their surroundings and the environment in general. Even more, the need to pursue their observations independently: to discover the who’s, what’s, where’s, when’s, and most importantly the how’s and why’s. Visual acuity and exploration, as Stilgoe mentions, can lead to an infinite amount of new knowledge and meaningful experiences that are completely personal.

Our family took yearly summer vacations until my first year in college: this was nice and all, but we used to drive everywhere, often meaning twenty plus hours in a car. Also, my dad, having a doctorate in American history, always planned a one day excursion to some sort of historic / cultural monument. As a child, I often dreaded the yearly trip, but I now realize that this combination has given me a privileged life. Since childhood, I have been allowed to explore and encouraged to explore my surroundings and my history. These trips allowed me to actually see the United States, to travel through the changing landscapes, swamps, hills, mountains, plains, cornfields, and trees, actually feeling the ups and downs, twists and turns. Also, our little day trips always brought a new and unknown experiences—battlefields, plantations, museums, Indian mounds, theaters, etc.—teaching and showing me my history. My parents have engrained the appreciation for beauty, art, culture, history, and knowledge of all sorts into me since birth. I was taught to see, hear, feel, and understand life with relatively little restraint and all the necessary tools to do so on my own.

Our landscape dictates our life, yet we rarely take time to appreciate it. Too frequently, we don’t stop to look at the unique and geometric shadow created by the cut outs and balconies in the Design Building around three in the afternoon, or don’t walk the short distance through the quad to our local Indian mounds from times past. We often neglect the unending amounts of free, priceless gifts we encounter every day, and what it took to get there, and merely brush them off as nothing. I agree with everything Stilgoe says in this introduction: exploration is necessary to appreciate and understand all things in life. And, I am proud to say that I already knew this.