a walk in the woods

by: Jessica Garner
Anyone who knows me will tell you that i am quite the tree hugger. Nature has always been my inspiration. I like to think of nature as something magical. A place to be alone, but you are not alone at all. A place to gather knowledge, whether it be your own or something the woods can teach you. Mysterious and all-knowing, the woods beckon you under it's cool and shady undergrowth as if to reveal to you its secrets. My mind is a treasure chest and nature is it's key. It is the only place i can go to and truly feel at ease and let my thoughts flow freely. That is why the T.L. Hanna (tiny patch of evil) woods is a blow to the lovely image I, and Emerson and Thoreau perceive.It is way too hot to be October. My forehead was shiny from sweat and my cheeks a bright red. Ugh, i hate it when they do that. It looks like i just ran a five mile marathon when actually, i had only been standing in the sun for five minutes. Dense humidity hung in the air. it was trapped under the treetops...just like me. I entered the woods with optimism, but that soon faded when i couldn't even hear my own thoughts through the class's chatter. And by chatter i mean dull roar. The ROTC ropes course wasn't very charming either. Not to mention the inspiring empty beer cans strewn across the leafy carpet. Being my usual self, i refused to take the marked path and began to trample through the soggy leaves and poison ivy. It was so hot. I shed my jacket and deeper and deeper into the woods we went. Dylan and i were the only ones left as we trekked onward...I guess we were the only ones dumb enough. But technically we weren't really going because we were both completely tangled in briars. For a good ten minutes I was twisting and turning and yelping in pain as the briers stayed tangled fiercely to my clothes and hair. I totally had a flashback to the scene in the movie Snow White that always used to scare me when I was little... when the scary trees grab her. But once I broke free and pulled Dylan out of his mess, the magic of those woods had vanished. And was replaced with something more like hatred and overwhelming pity. These woods did not deserve the vandalism that mankind and placed upon it. The vast amount of briars seemed more like a defense mechanism now, no humans allowed. Alone and frustrated, Dylan and I stumbled,and tripped... and fell through the tree trunks and vines until we came upon a parking lot. We then took the paved road back down to our class, glad that the experience was over.Though my trip to the T.L. Hanna woods was not very delightful, I still agree with Emerson and Thoreau's perception of the woods. there was still a lesson to learn in those woods...even if they were evil. and Just because I had one bad experience it does not waver my love toward nature. Emerson believes that all natural objects make a kindred expression when the mind is open to their influence. I believe that this is true. if we all can open our mind to nature then we will be embraced by it. Mankind has not opened it's mind to nature. only looking at it and seeing a nice spot for a new industry, some good supplies for our own benefit. Did anyone ever think that we might benefit more if we kept nature how it is? Emerson and Thoreau think so. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to find only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived at all." Thoreau says to live in nature or you are not living at all. Instead of sitting in your clean and shiny house go out and get your hands dirty, fend for yourself, and feel like you are doing something worth while. there are things yet to learn from the woods if you would take the time out of your quiet and confined life under the fluorescent lights.I know its not like I'm going to convince the whole world to enjoy nature and i can't imagine the frustration that Emerson and Thoreau feel that their beliefs have fallen on deaf ears. "Standing on the bare ground-- my head in the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space-- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball." Emerson explains the feeling of being in nature. I wonder if anyone today can say that they have experienced the same thing. He was living the good life and we could do the same if we would just walk beneath the trees.

by Jessica Garner
10/19/07
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