On the Move

I didn’t get far
down the Gambles Mill Trail when we were traversing there during our Geography
class last Thursday. Once I made it past the initial area that appears to be
“The Road Less Traveled By” from Frost’s poem, I stumbled across something I
had been wondering about for almost a year, The University of Richmond’s
Community Garden. Naturally I was rather pleased at spontaneously finding such
a treasure and immediately my thoughts turned to all the delicious
possibilities that were now open to me and the rest of the world because of
this discovery. A community garden, being a garden for the community, promotes
friendship and general neighborliness between members of a community by
providing them with a common activity, gardening. This idea is common all over
the world from the suburbs of Richmond to rural Nigeria to urban Boston. Food,
flowers, and friends all being things that I love, naturally this sits high in
my admiration.

But
I realize now, as I did in the moment, that the benefits of said Community
Garden were not meant to be the sole focus of Earth Lodge’s journey into the
wilderness between our facilities center and the golf course belonging to the
Country Club of Richmond.

After exploring the garden for a
bit I sat down in the path to take in the contrast around me. I had behind me
an expansive field of golden grass kept in (almost)perfect condition so that
people in Richmond could come and play golf. To my right was another stretch of
grass, this time brilliantly green, that is meant to be torn up so people in
the Richmond community can sew new seeds where old seeds once were. On my left
were two huge mounds of mulch, which have a specific reason for being there, I
just don’t know what that is yet. But everywhere else, surrounding the path, pushing
through cracks and over fences, was nature undisturbed serving as a natural
boundary between the different purposes of man. We use nature for what we want,
it is an obstruction, it needs to be tamed, it needs to be controlled and
manipulated. Even when this “wilderness” becomes a destination, an escape, or
an object of worship we are still using it for what we want, forgetting that
wilderness cannot be completely controlled. I am reminded of how the characters
in The Lion, The Witch, and The
Wardrobedescribe Aslan as being neither safe nor tame, but
being good. Chris McCandless may or may not have understood that nature is
neither safe nor tame, but I do think he understood that it was good, and I do
think it is important for everyone to understand these things.