Augustana College
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Thoreau writes that not many people know the art of Walking. I am trying to learn it, and I think part of it involves learning to see what is there. My friend Scott Parsons has helped me to see better by teaching me to draw, since the pencil forces me to pay attention to what I actually see rather than just what I think I see.
Lately I have been trying to walk more - that is, to Walk more - in and around my city, Sioux Falls. I find, as I step off the sidewalks and walk a little more transgressively, the city is transformed. The habits of sidewalks and cars speed up the world around us until much of it vanishes in a blur.
Thoreau recommends trans-gressing, that is, stepping across paths and fences rather than letting them herd us to the destinations that habit and tradition and fetishized commerce want to lead us. Once he wrote that we should sometimes bend over and look at the world upside down. Sometimes this is all the "transgression" that is needed to overcome the aggressive habits that constrain us in daily life.
Another tool I have used lately is the camera, peering down its glassy pipe at single, simple things, trying to break up the landscape by gazing intently at just one point. Or, at times, using the lens to draw the world together, to see how much I can gather into its frame.
When I first moved to Sioux Falls almost ten years ago I thought it was a homely place, a city that did not care for design or good planning or beautiful architecture. Slowly, one frame at a time, I am changing my own mind. As I Walk through and around it, I am coming to see that it is, at times and in places, quite a lovely place to live.
Walking In Nature - In Sioux Falls
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| Cardinal in Tuthill Park, Sioux Falls |
Lately I have been trying to walk more - that is, to Walk more - in and around my city, Sioux Falls. I find, as I step off the sidewalks and walk a little more transgressively, the city is transformed. The habits of sidewalks and cars speed up the world around us until much of it vanishes in a blur.
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| Whitetail deer, east Sioux Falls |
Thoreau recommends trans-gressing, that is, stepping across paths and fences rather than letting them herd us to the destinations that habit and tradition and fetishized commerce want to lead us. Once he wrote that we should sometimes bend over and look at the world upside down. Sometimes this is all the "transgression" that is needed to overcome the aggressive habits that constrain us in daily life.
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| Ice on a single blade of grass on the Augustana College campus |
When I first moved to Sioux Falls almost ten years ago I thought it was a homely place, a city that did not care for design or good planning or beautiful architecture. Slowly, one frame at a time, I am changing my own mind. As I Walk through and around it, I am coming to see that it is, at times and in places, quite a lovely place to live.
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Joy Run
Yesterday we ran for joy. About eighty people showed up to join me to run one-tenth of a marathon around the Augustana College campus.
It started as a response to the attack on the Boston Marathon last week. I decided to defy the preachers of fear by running for joy, and to honor those tens of thousands of runners who ran in Boston. And I invited friends, because joy shared is joy amplified.
I didn't expect many people to join me, so I was surprised to find seventy or eighty runners - and a few walkers, and quite a few dogs - waiting for me when I arrived. Even more surprising were the TV cameras from all the local stations, and the reporter from the Argus Leader. Here are some links to their stories: Argus, KDLT, KSFY. And, of course, at our Augie news website. I was pleased to talk with such intelligent and kind reporters who thought this was newsworthy.
I was so swamped by the interviews before the race that I wasn't able to snap a photo of everyone beforehand, but here's a photo of some of the people who ran with me, at the finish line. I'm grateful to live with such joyful people.
Several of those who ran with us also ran the Boston Marathon, including two who ran this year and two who ran in previous years. We were honored by their presence.
It's better to live lives of joy, lives of neighborly care, lives full of what St John calls agape, or nurturing love, than to live lives constricted by fear. My gratitude goes out to everyone who ran with me, and to the reporters who covered it, and to all people everywhere, who bring joy to the world.
It started as a response to the attack on the Boston Marathon last week. I decided to defy the preachers of fear by running for joy, and to honor those tens of thousands of runners who ran in Boston. And I invited friends, because joy shared is joy amplified.
I didn't expect many people to join me, so I was surprised to find seventy or eighty runners - and a few walkers, and quite a few dogs - waiting for me when I arrived. Even more surprising were the TV cameras from all the local stations, and the reporter from the Argus Leader. Here are some links to their stories: Argus, KDLT, KSFY. And, of course, at our Augie news website. I was pleased to talk with such intelligent and kind reporters who thought this was newsworthy.
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| Some of the Joy Runners |
Several of those who ran with us also ran the Boston Marathon, including two who ran this year and two who ran in previous years. We were honored by their presence.
It's better to live lives of joy, lives of neighborly care, lives full of what St John calls agape, or nurturing love, than to live lives constricted by fear. My gratitude goes out to everyone who ran with me, and to the reporters who covered it, and to all people everywhere, who bring joy to the world.