Thursday, April 18, 2013

Stepping Back to Catch Up

I don't seem to be very good at this blogging thing. I'm more than a little behind, but I think I've finally realized why I have so much trouble thanks to some of our recent readings.

My first few posts were my reactions straight from the reading, written out in kind of a rigid format as I tried to grasp the technical ideas of philosophy.  However, reading Bugbee has gotten me inspired to catch back up. He relates ideas from his wanderings, both mentally and physically, back to his own central philosophy, without getting bogged down in trying to frame his arguments in some kind of rigid format. Over the next few days I hope to do just that as I catch up to the blog.

Now that I've put down my excuses, and talked about myself too much, on to the important bit.

This week, for me, has been a week of wandering.  I've gotten out into the woods for a little while almost every day now that the weather has turned nice and warm.  The paths behind the dorm where I live have been my primary romping zone, and I made a fun discovery the other day- a blue tailed skink foraging down next to the creek. 

I spent a good hour chasing that skink, and didn't manage to catch him before he ran away.  However, I did succeed in getting myself covered in dirt, grass-stains, and scratching up my legs on the brush.  I had other more important things to work on, but that hour was one of the best I'd had in a while, and that hour was spent chasing a creepy-crawly little lizard.  Just being immersed in the natural world for a little while made my stress fall away and re-grounded me. 

For just a little while, it was just me experiencing the chase, and intimately interacting with the world around me.  Every crinkle of twigs under my boots, every movement of the skink, every ripple in the creek, and every bird call were present before my senses.  I felt like I could grasp Bugbee's notion of "wilderness" a little more clearly, as I simply experienced the things that were present around me without bias or preconception.

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