Kian Salinsky: Environmental Interactions; Lion's Bridge

     A bit of background before I begin, I am an Eagle Scout. I was part of the Boy Scouts for 6 or 7 years and in that time I have had many interactions with nature. I have crawled through pitch-black caves in the Appalachia, canoeing on the Roanoke, and hiking/camping in regions all in between. I have gone to week-long summer camps for every year I was part of the Boy Scouts. Even before I was in Boy Scouts I would frequently walk along the creek that ran next to my house as a kid. To say I already had a connection to nature would be an understatement. my love for nature is bigger than even I give it credit for. The reason for that is something I'll get into later.

    I did not plan to walk as much as I did.

    My first thought about this assignment was that it was nothing more than something that had be be endured for a little bit for the sake of the class. I first thought that I could procrastinate getting a ride to the Lion's Bridge until the day of, and that I could just go in whatever car my suite mate, who's also in this class, was going in. A few hours before I had to go I asked him how he was getting to the bridge, and he said he was using is bike. Dammit. Maybe I could have made one last effort to make a comment in the discussion in Scholar for a carpool, but I knew that no-one would see it. So I simply accepted that I would have to walk there. I checked how long it would take to get there by foot on Google maps, and it said "41 minutes". I was displeased by the length of time, to say the least. I knew that I had to just endure it if I wanted to make the class, and I wasn't too daunted with the trek given my experience. I figured to give myself some extra tame just to make sure I wasn't late, so I decided to leave at 3:30. It took me about 30 minutes to get to the Nolan trail from Santoro hall, and during that time I thought about spirituality, the class, and the scenery; all of which I'll get into later. I had also realized half way through that I had forgot a water bottle and that I brought my jacket for some reason. I chalked that up to absent-mindedness. All along the way I was checking maps and signs to make sure I was going the right way until I until I got to the trail. I followed the trail for a while getting immersed in an experience I hadn't had in a while, all the while thinking about the Bridge I was supposed to be seeing. Having the name "Lion's Bridge" would suggest that it was some big landmark that would be impossible to miss by a regular person. I had certainly passed over a couple of bridges, but there wasn't any indication of a Lion, just names like "bridge 14". Getting suspicious, I checked my phone. The time was 4:10 and the GPS told be I was north-east of the Bridge, traveling north along the east shore of the Mariner's Lake. How on earth could I have missed the Bridge, and by that big a margin?! Apparently my orienteering skills where not what they used to be. I decided that getting hung up over the miscalculation would be a waste of time and that the only thing to do was to head back towards the Bridge. Right after this realization was only thinking about the class and my mistake and about the Bridge, not thinking about the nature itself. Later, after feeling tired from the 1-hour of total continuous walking, I decided to sit down at Holly overlook, ironically beset on all sides by trees, completely blocking the view of the lake the overlook might once have had. But even after finding a few gaps in the trees I still couldn't see Lion's Bridge. Then I started to recall Lane's third axiom in Landscapes of the Sacred and what the professor had said about getting caught up with other issues and not paying attention to the nature surrounding me. So I started to forget about the bridge and the class and continued walking west taking in what was around me. I eventually reached the west entrance and noticed the map that I had read earlier, and was amused by the fact I didn't even consider the map's directions. I guess I just assumed the wooded path was the correct way to go as opposed to the clearing marked by the statue and the adjacent parking lot. I met up with the rest of the class by the statue when by meditative state was shattered by the tired rhetoric the professor was espousing. He was saying something about Kronos and dogs or something asinine like that that's par for the course in this class. I let the professor know that I had been hiking for a while already and was just going to go back to Santoro. Along the way I got lost a second time after following the trail for a little bit and not consulting maps. I eventually reached the commons, and to my surprise I wasn't frustrated or disappointed by what happened. I felt pleased and refreshed, despite desperately needing a shower.

    When I arrived at the Nolan trail, it felt familiar. I had never been to Newport News before this, but I felt like I had been on that trail before. It reminded me about my hikes with my Troop, and the forest reminded me of the creek. It all reminded me of why I wen to those places in the first place. Walking along the established trail among the trees feels comforting. It's a timeless world that I know will look, sound, smell, and feel the same the next time I come back. I feel the trees walking with me, the animals going about their lives the same as me, and the shore of the lake twisting and turning, but always there as a reference point. Each hill is an incline and decline barely noticed as a simple step on the path. The rustle of trees in the canopy above brace the winds cut by the trees around me. The fallen pine leaves form a carpet around the trail that could be just as easily walked upon, but would get me more lost than I already am. I tend to follow the path and walk with the nature forgetting what I'm supposed to be walking towards. This assignment reminded me about something I briefly forgot. It reminded me about the wonders of nature and cleansing feeling I get when I can forget about other parts of life.

    This brings me to comments on this class. Some people will attempt to share these kinds of experiences through word and action, ignorant of the fact that a spiritual moment is fundamentally subjective to time, place, person, and emotion. That's not saying that those spiritual events never happened, but translating that feeling and emotion into words and trying to get others to feel it is, in my opinion, impossible. Such is my problem with this class. The prescribed material, rhetoric, and terms perturbs me. I don't think you can ever properly explain spiritual events with such nonsense as 'gods', 'spirits', or 'worlds'. Personification of nature is an adulteration of such. Applying the emotions and intents along with the accompanying baggage of people and society completely discounts what nature really means. Nature is completely detached from human society; it has nothing to do with it. Nature has remained relatively identical through the development and enhancement of the human race. Although it changes alongside humanity that is simply nature evolving with circumstance. I believe nature takes its course and humanity attaches meaning to it. Applying gods and spirits to nature is only a desperate attempt to explain the miraculous nature we find ourselves gifted with. Such application is meant to make nature deliberate and with purpose, because such complicated ecosystems and stunning forms couldn't be and accident, right?(sarcasm) Said applications of intentional creation diminish the miracle that is life on earth. I believe that it was, in fact, by complete chance that a couple of bacteria that crash landed on this rock millions of years ago evolved into the nature we enjoy today. The notion that everything had to have a purpose in it's creation is ignorant of the very much luck based cosmos that is life itself. I understand the general ideas of this class very well, and the literature to boot. I understand the "it" and the "you" interpersonal relationships. I understand why people find sacred meaning in places; even I have. But I have a very difficult time taking all of it as an accurate interpretation of the world around us.

    Sorry to get all corny, but I was having a good day, and decided to care.