Nature

Fifteen-Minute Spill

Deep in the woods there is a cliff,
A cliff surrounded by clouds.
A black and menacing cliff it is,
With needles of rock at its base.
A child stands there looking, and what does he see,
The faint outline of the sun emerging from the mist.
In a clear voice that only he can hear,
The landscape talks to him, speaks to him, sings to him.
A message for eternity,
Of youth and posterity.

The nature experiment is a challenge for all of us to experience nature and the outside world in tee way that Emerson would want. The way I came upon my experiment was in a way a giant cosmic accident. It happened last Friday night, the fifth of December after the semi-final game of CIF for my football team. After we had won and our captain had led us in an adrenaline inducing, heart pounding chant, I was exhausted and looking forward to getting out of my dirty football uniform and jumping into bed for some well deserved sleep. I happened to be the last one off the field on the way to the locker room, and I was about in the middle of the field when it hit me. I wasn't planning on doing my experiment then nor did I realize that it was my experiment until the next day. I was about where the left hash marks meet the fifty yard line when I looked up at the lights and realized that this field, or any field, is my escape to nature. I don't have the time to go out to the deep forest nor the mental willpower to sit still and serenly for any length of time, but I do get the opportunity to go out into the football field almost every day for six months out of the year. Emerson said that nature is a place where you are isolated from anything that you would be comfortable with. That feat is nearly impossible for anyone, but the football field is as close as I can get. I enjoyed a zenlike experience if you will for just a short period of time that night. This experiment is probably very different from most other people's, but the field, the pitch, the turf, that is my environment and my connection to nature.

Friendship

"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off..."

This quote from Emerson's Friendship essay was the inspiration for my Experiment. I tried to go the whole day by living by his words and trying to apply them to every action and every dealing with my friends throughout the day. It was a lot harder than I thought to try and say everything that was on my mind and to forget about the filter that we all have that keeps many of our thoughts from being voiced. I had a hard time opening up to people on that deeper level because I am used to guarding my thoughts and actions all the time in order to try and please everyone. I tried to be real with people and speak my mind, almost to the point of bluntness. I probably weirded some people out with my slight change in mindset but over all I thought it was a successful experiment. I think its hard for anyone to really open up completely because once you do you are completely exposed for all the world to see. Everyone always keeps some sort of wall up to protect themselves and many of those walls are so deeply ingrown into our consciousness that they are almost impossible to bring down. Even though I was a lot more honest with people that day I still don't think that I was able to remove all of my personal walls. Other than that I thought it was a refreshing day where I didnt have to think so much about what I was saying and instead I just said it.