A New England Misadventure: Friendly, Slow Country

Take a walk with me...

I have walked these roads and paths since I was five years old. In those days, I would walk to Hamilton Pond with my family: my brother was smaller than me, and I remember being very aware and scared of alligator snapping turtles that lurked in the rushes at the edge of the pond.

When I began my walk the other day, I was very sad, for a multitude of reasons. Slowly, though, as emotion is apt to do, my mood changed from sadness to awareness to awe to happiness. Happiness at the way the light looked as it shone through the fronds of ferns, awe when the lilypads and grasses turned metallic on the surface of the pond as I walked by, and awareness of others, different from me, as I walked right by a doe asleep in a hayfield.

The light here is so vivid, so full of life-giving, photosynthesis-charged energy, that it is strong enough to look as if it is bleaching the horizon: turning those plants that might have deep green leaves and leaflets yellow, gold, chartreuse. It's as if the sun is here for such a short time that everything bursts with the desire to respond to its influence: the tropisms are intense! Cattails sway, hay changes from green-brown grass to golden straw. The ferns twist and turn in the wind, changing color as they move back and forth.


As I drove up here several weeks ago, it was the light that I noticed most. The light that shone painfully down onto the plants at the side of the highway as I raced by at 85 miles per hour. Everywhere I looked were trees! shrubs! grasses! birds! deer! In Philadelphia, there is a lack of these things and it wasn't until I was in their midst at a rest stop in southern Maine that I realized how much I had missed the nature that, in Austin, I took for granted.


It was on this walk, too, that I realized how interconnected my mood is to my surroundings: how natural beauty effects me. I have a strange jealousy for people who do not experience this, because it must make living in diverse locales easier. It must make the city less tough to take: the cracks in the pavement, the brick, the concrete parks less incongruous.

The surface of the pond was so stupendous! How lucky was I to leave my house in a foul funk, walk down the road that is so familiar to me I hardly notice the steps I take anymore, past the Post Office that will stay open, across the fast-lane that is Route 3 here at the head of the island, and over again, into friendly, slow country.

A Rainy Misadventure - Subterranean Isolation & a Surprise Art Gallery

Yesterday, I took myself on an adventure....

 When you walk along Broad Street, you feel and hear the hum-squeak of the subway

 I used the subway all the time in New York, but here it is not very popular. (Think: almost vacant). Granted, it was mid-morning, but still!!!

View of the platform....strange, right???

 Spooookkkyyyyy....

Anyway, I can't tell if I am being paranoid because this is the first big city I have ever lived in, or because people keep telling me to "be careful"....it's all I get from people I meet. I must have a face that screams: "I'm from out of town!!! Tell me how scary it is here!!!" or something....

I was nervous in the subway though because there were too few people in there for comfort. The hustle and bustle of subway travel is what tells you everything is ok. When it is too empty, it gets frightening and you realize you are in a tunnel underground with 3 weird-looking strangers. One of whom follows you almost up to the surface (I started walking really fast when this happened and I think he gave up).

 The center of influence of my new employer...

The whole purpose of the subway trip was to go the School District of Philadelphia building on North Broad Street and investigate my new employer a bit, and to get my FBI fingerprinting and background check completed. The security guards were very sweet and helpful and I got my fingerprinting done in about 10 minutes....I even got complements on my purse from the tech who did the fingerprinting!!!

Student-made recycled plastic and paper dolphin

The other great thing about the SDP building was the student art show. If you are in Philly and want to see a whole lot of great student art all in one place....hop on over to 404 North Broad Street, show them your driver's license, get a security badge, and go and walk around....Here's a small tour...

4th Grader

7th Grader

My favorite....done by a 12th grade student. Paint on plywood. Fantastic!!!

Every time I see a student art show like this, and this one is very impressive, I often want to call up people like governors and presidents and just ask the dumb question: "Sir, how can you say that arts education is not important?" How can they say that the public schools shouldn't be funded? It is so clear that students now are expressing themselves in such a multitude of ways that we, as adults, are literally stupid to not listen to their voices as expressed in their art.

The Steak & Bagel Train

 Entryway to the Philadelphia Inquirer

After walking through the artwork for about an hour, I left the building and walked back down North Broad toward the subway stop. I must say that Philadelphia is making me really nervous right now: lots of people, lots of noise, lots of people just hanging out on the street at all hours. Lots of ambulances, too few trees and parks. I know it is just my past experiences that are coloring my present: but I do miss my old backyard and my pomegranate, oak and mountain laurel trees....

 Amazing old building on North Broad

I also know that no matter where you go, there you are, and that I have to make the most of this experience. And I know that I will get more attuned to Philly and its musings, its ways of working and strategies to ignore the massive amount of people that surround you every moment of every day....

North Broad and Vine, north side of 676

As I walked, I thought about all these things and was noticing the beautiful old buildings in disrepair contrasted with the beautiful new murals that are everywhere, and I noticed more beauty than decay, to be sure.

North Broad & Vine, on the south side of 676

And I was standing, like the tourist that I am, on the corner snapping this photo, a lady walked up to me and said, "This light takes a long time to change": she was telling me to stop taking photos and walk, because if I didn't, I'd be waiting a long time! And see, that's what I mean: people in Philly are friendly and helpful, if you'll just let them be.