Picture Story!

This is a short version of the story I wrote to go along with my picture:

She cannot wait to crawl into her bed after her eight-five shift at Abbot, after rushing to beat traffic she parks her Honda accord and runs inside. She jabs the up button, tapping her feet as she waits for the elevator to get to the first floor so she can take it to her fifth floor apartment. The elevator is hot and just as the doors are about to close three people get in. Thankfully they are getting of at the third floor, the elevator dings three times, the door creeps open and the couple gets off. She frantically presses the door close button so no one else can get on. As she anxiously waits to get off she wonders why she didn't notice the photographer in the corner before.

middlefork savanna observations

This is my niche. My playground, shelter, the tall grass that provides me with nutrients, energy, that sustains me. It delivers amino acids that make me grow. We are neighbors, lovers, friends. I share with the zebra bees. There wings flap two hundred times a minute as they gorge on my sweet nectar. I am not mad at them. They are spreading my DNA, so my children can grow. Futile, passionate as the sun plays hide and seek. I seek it, my seeds crave it. I feel the photosynthesis in my body, it is real, and it shakes me. Tall ugly creatures stare at me, think I am weak. They do not see my complexity, my mitochondria, my chloroplasts. They don’t see that our DNA is ninety six percent the same as mine. They trample me, why when they need me? They don’t own me, I own me!

It stands about a foot and a half tall. The stem is round, circular, around a millimeter in diameter. The very bottom of the stem is green, than the green fades into a dark red after about six inches. Then an inch later there is three leaves pointing north, southwest, and southeast. The one green one pointing north is shaped like a teardrop (do blind people know what a teardrop looks like?) it is about a centimeter long and half a centimeter wide. I think the other two are older because they are about an inch long. They have started to turn brown, develop little holes, and crinkle. From were the stem starts is yellow and the upper part is brown. One leaf is curled up completely.
Another inch of red stem, and another cluster of leaves. There are eight in a cluster four around the stem and four bigger ones that are about the length of a long fingernail and than four smaller leaves sticking straight up in the middle. There are two bigger ones that are two to three inches. One is green with brown spots and three small holes in it. The other leaf starts of green then fades to brown then yellow at its curled tip.
Another inch of stem and another similar cluster of leaves, except there is only one big oval leaf that has five or six holes in it, it looks like it was burnt with a lighter.
Another red inch of stem, another of cluster of leaves. Four leaves in the middle cluster around something strange. Inside there are buds, little yellow cones, thin with circular fuzzies (pollan) and four smaller yellow sticks around it. They have a weird rough bumpy texture, than another cluster of leaves with two buds. At the top there are four curled up leaves at opposite corners from each other. They start of red and then fade up to green with three pointed leaves. Than an inch up there are two longer thinner leaves that start of red and then turn to green, they have fuzzy hairs on them. The right one looks healthy, the left one starts of red and turns yellow the tip curls inward. One top is one black strand with prickles that winds up like a loop it is brown and the thinnest part of the plant

field trip & LSAT

The field trip to Middlefork Savanna was very benefecial to me. I took the LSAT today and was really stressed out yesterday, walking around the Savanna was really calming and writing about my relationship with nature really helped get some stress out for me. I took the LSAT this morning so I need to go nap, and I will post my writings tomorrow!

field trip tomorrow should be fun! Looking forward to the weekend. Since the Pollan lecture I've been trying to take his advice, and I feel healthier already!

fall

I love fall, I think some of the best nature writing comes from when people write about fall!

Pollan Reaction

I thought the Pollan lecture today was very informative, and entertaining. I enjoyed his lecture much better than his writing! I thought he was funny and well-spoken. A lot of what he said was very true. I work at a restaurant and our salads even though they are the healthiest thing on the menu, still aren't healthy at all. In fact all our food is very unhealthy and high in calories. Yet, just because we sell salads, or wraps and people perceive them as "healthy" people believe they are eating healthier when they order these foods. Yet, this is not the case at all and the control that the food industry has over government is disturbing as well!

inspirational pictures

I think it would be really cool if this class incorporated some picture taking a long with the writing. Here is some more inspirational pictures taken at a prairie by Lake Forest College.

The Chicago skyline, also something that is very inspiring to me.

This is at the Mediterranean Sea in Israel taken summer 2007. There were tons of jellyfish all over and this view and this sea inspires a lot of my environmental writing!

Michael Pollan's environmental discourse focuses on the food industry. In an Environmental Justice class I took at Lake Forest my favorite book we read was "My Year of Meats" by Ruth Ozeki. The book revolved around Jane,a TV producer, that was directed to make a cooking show that would be featured in Japan. The studio wants her to focus on meats, as she begins making her show she learns a lot about what is really in beef such as the hormone DES. The book dips into a lot of serious issues such as the role of women in America and Japan, but most importantly food politics.
This book was entertaining, and a really fast and easy read. I would recommend it to anyone, but I think people that are interested in Pollan's discourse would really love this book.

Drafts

This was the first part of my poem that I completely got rid of. Though I like it, it did not fit with the poem but not using something you wrote is always hard. So I am going to post it on here!

when thin crooked branches
envelope me
reaching,
twitching,
twisting,
melting
into darkness visible.
I hear their whispered whimpers
worried & weary.
Begging, yearning, pleading
help us.

“All the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life...then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om - perfection."
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

muse

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is something I wrote a while back after a vacation in Israel it was very inspirational to me!

I know were not supposed to do so many posts in one night, but this has been a hectic weekend at work at Chammps and closing every night gives me no time or opportunity to get my thoughts out!

I would walk slowly with the waves following beside me. Salt water splashed on my ankles causing a stinging sensation to run through my cuts and bruises caused by the thousands of mosquitoes and mistaken steps. It’s strange how the salt water actually cures those same cuts. With the power of the sea gliding behind me I slowly made my way to the jagged fence, separating the regular beach and the orthodox beach. For some reason that day, 20 feet away from the fence laid a huge mass. Its hard and textured body was covered in green algae, underneath an almost steel plated shell pure black, shiny eyes stared at me. Salt water and ants had begun to eat away at the shell. The sea turtle was dead, my first significant death discovered at age fifteen.

I know I haven't posted for a while but this my first chance to sit down and have some time with a computer. I just got of work and watching the sunset today inspired me to write this!

sunset
Melting
one with the sky
Like orange sherbet and cotton candy ice cream
During days, when scraped knees would bring about your demise
Palm trees with precious fingers pointing towards the heavens
A young couple glides through the wet sand
With hands entwined,
One

The Aral Sea is located in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan, Karakalpakstan, and Uzbekistan. Since the 1960’s the sea has been drying up at a rapid rate. Throughout this paper I will explain why the desiccation of the Aral Sea is a problem, discuss the market failures that have led up to this problem, and demonstrate how I would value five possible benefits of solving this problem. As a result of the Aral’s desiccation there have been severe environmental, economic and social consequences. Some of these consequences are a loss of biodiversity, dust storms, severe health issues, increased unemployment, and loss of recreational activities. Several market failures have led to the problem including externalities and overexploitation. With a crisis this big it is clear that action needs to be taken in order to save the Aral Sea. There are various benefits to finding a solution to this problem; one can value these benefits through economic valuation methods. Yet, first it is important to understand why the desiccation of the Aral Sea is considered one of the biggest natural resource disasters of the 20th century.

Silent Night

The cold wind that gently tingles my face makes the leaves rustle as though they were whispering. Crickets click rapidly then make no sound at all. This reminds me of a high school lunch room scene. Teenage girls whisper as I walk by, when they think I can not hear them they chirp and gossip, when I turn and give them the death stare; complete silence. The squeal of screeching tires wakes me up from my cafeteria nightmare. The screech fades away and it is silent again. This is how I know it is night, I can only hear one or two cars a minute as they zoom past the usually busy intersection by my house. Heels click and clank up the stairs outside my balcony, metal clicks against metal and then a loud slam of the door. Someones had a long day.

http://www.toptenz.net/top-ten-strangest-natural-phenomena.php

This is a link to a video of Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. The explanation for this is that “‘The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth’s magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth’s atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometers above the earth’s surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern.’”

Though the explanation is very complicated this is one of the most beautiful naturally occurring things I have ever seen and I thought this would be interesting to share.

I am gazing out the window as I drive past lush green pines tree along highway 34 from Macomb, Illinois. Even after a few days of this class I realize that now I look at nature entirely differently. Last week I would have never payed attention to the euphoric jungle scene were one of my favorite bands, Zmick, was playing yesterday. Yet, this time I took the time to study the thick grass, and lush trees and it made me the afternoon even more. I will defiantly post pictures shortly.

Underneath the mountain ranges

Where the wind that never changes

Touch the windows of my soul

Touch the windows of my soul

I'm just a child of nature

I don't need much to set me free

I'm just a child of nature

I'm one of nature's children

-The beatles "child of nature"

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

~Henry David Thoreau

I am spending the day fishing at Argyle Lake State Park (thats a picture of it above)

Bench in front of Carnegie:

Thin:

As I sit on a brown hard bench, five feet of grey separates me from a field of lush green grass that stands about two inches tall. There are about ten different trees in front of me that are all different shapes and sizes. The tree about ten feet in front of me is the tallest and thickest tree. Its branches probably reach forty feet, the leaves look like one inch spheres on a thin vein; there is about ten of these spheres on each side of the leaf. The tree branches and leaves slowly move up and down, left to right. There is a shade under the tree; despite a bright yellow blinding circle that is to the left of the tree. It appears to be only fifty feet away. Studying it makes me eyes water so I focus my attention to the little white round flowers beyond the grey blocks. The one inch flowers are scattered around the tree. They have little one millimeter petals, a bug that is approximately the same size as the actual flower sits atop of one. To the right a stone rectangle sits on the grass. It is approximately a foot tall and a dirty white color. On top of this rectangle is darker rectangle that is around two inches thick and about two inches longer, so that it hangs over the side. Two unidentifiable shapes sit on top of the rectangles. The plaque on the block reads “DUO”.

Thick:

I sit on a brown hard bench, five feet of grey walkway that hundreds of students use to get to class, separates me from a field of lush green grass. The grass stands only two inches tall; someone has recently mowed it. There are about ten trees in front of me that were all probably planted at different times throughout the college’s history. The tree in front of me has probably seen thousands of students pass as it is the tallest and oldest in appearance. Its branches look like hands climbing up a rope. The weather today is the best that I’ve seen in days. It is only slightly windy, and the bright sun that finally came out to play looks like a juicy orange. Though it seems like I could grasp it in my hands, I know it is truly millions of miles away. The ultraviolet rays hurt my eyes so I focus my attention to a shaded area that is created by the trees branches. Little white flowers line up underneath the shade along the sidewalk. They are so tiny, yet they can hold the weight of a bug that is almost the same size. If the bug was in closer proximity and if I wasn’t in such a good mood I would have probably squashed it. To the right of the old tree there is a green sculpture of a women’s torso bending down on the left side of a cement block. One the right side is a dark rock that looks as though it has been sliced in an angled half with a samurai sword. The two halves of these objects truly make a questionable duo.

Shooting Star Savanna:

Thin:

Twenty feet in front of me all I can see is a sea of green with glimmers of blue. There is an abundance of tall trees with many green leaves on the tree’s branches. Some of the trees have leaves with three sharp corners; other trees have leaves with eight rounded tips. The taller trees have thicker branches. At the top of the trees the branches point upwards, while the branches on the bottom half of the trees hang down. There are several thin trees with a few scraggly leaves. The bench we are sitting on is rounded, stone, light brown and about ten feet across in diameter. In the center of the bench the grass is brown, it is not standing up. Dirt can be seen under the thin grass. The grass on the other side of the bench savanna is a lighter shade of green then the trees and stands erect. The only flowers in the savanna are a bright yellow. Some stand as tall as five feet, while others barely stand a foot tall. The flowers and tree branches sway slowly. The forest looks like it can go on forever, but there seems to be a steep hill about fifty feet away. About five feet in front of me there is a five foot area with wood on the ground that is a black color and there appears to be some ash.

Thick:

The savanna is so filled with trees that I can only see little bits of crystal blue sky through the branches. The taller trees are thicker because they are older and the rings inside a stump of a tree can tell one how old a tree is. The tree branches at the top point upwards; they are reaching towards the sun because it provides them with energy. The branches sway slightly; today the windy city isn’t living up to its name. The hard stone bench encircles grass that is brown and dying because of people trampling it. Still some of the grass attempts to rise and live; its desire for life is contagious. As I lift up my foot up to turn three pieces of grass get pulled out by my sandal. Does this hurt? The forest looks it can go on for an eternity but I know that just behind the trees are mansions. I also know that there is a ravine about fifty feet away, because I have almost fallen down the narrow valley while exploring it in the darkness. The black wood in front of me brings up happy memories of bonfires in the summertime, and I am almost certain that some one was having a bonfire in the savanna. To me this seems like a dangerous idea, but the wood sleeps peacefully on the grass.