“A kind of northing is what I wish to accomplish, a single-minded trek towards that place where any shutter left open to the zenith at night will record the wheeling of the sky’s stars as a pattern of perfect, concentric circles. I seek a reduction, a shedding, a sloughing off” (Dillard 255).

I always thought Dillard was awesome and now an entire chapter based on a reference to surveying.

This passage sort of the reminded me back to “Living like Weasels” and Dillard urges the reader to simplify and live more deliberately. She remarks the difficulty in achieving this but encourages us to strive for it.

The passage uses this idea of the sky as a heaven and a place to look toward as we slough off.

“I don’t think names tell us much of character, essence, meaning. Einstein thought that the most mysterious aspect of the universe is what he called its “comprehensibility.” (50 Watching the Birds)

I like this quote because I have always wondered why we are forced to have to recognize different species, everyones name in a room. It also made me think about The Fantastic Mr. Fox where they are naming the different species in latin.

“The most mysterious thing about the universe is not its comprehensibility but the fact that it exists” (51 Watching the Birds)

I think this is an interesting analogy and it offers a different way to look at the world. It reminds us to think about the magic that is hidden in nature and simply why things happen the way they do”

“In the spring the wish to wander is partly composed of an unnamable irritation, born of long inactivity; in the fall the impulse is more pure, more inexplicable, and more urgent. I could use some danger, I suddenly thought, so I abruptly abandoned the creek to its banks and climbed the cliff. I wanted some height, and I wanted to see the woods” (249 Dillard)

I like the comparison of spring to fall because of the cyclical nature of the seasons. I also got this feeling about hiking in the fall. In the spring I feel like everyone is just going out after waking up after their long winters nap when they are hiking and exploring through the woods. In the fall you go exploring because it’s more of a fun thing to do and less of a necessary activity.

I have a little dinky tree that is growing in front of my off campus house. Some drunk hooligan decided to post a beer can on the stake that supports the tree. This made me think about our relationship with nature and alcohol.  When we were floating down the Delaware River we passed a bunch of men who were all on floats and drinking. Why do people feel the need to drink while interacting with nature?

“We watched the storms of late afternoon. Sun descending in a welter of brawling purple clouds. Spokes of the gold wheel across the sky, jags and jets of lightening flicker from cloud to cloud to earth. Mighty kettledrums thunder in the distance. My wind gauge reads thirty five knots. The trees sway, the wind booms through the forest” (Abbey, 54).

Abbey talks about the role of the watcher. The watcher’s job is to sit and watch nature around them in the context of the wind, fires, weather, birds etc. He talks about Einstein and how he saw the world as comprehensible and because you could understand it because it’s properties could be described in a formula. He also brings us Francis Bacon’s perspective, “knowledge is power.” I like this quote (the quote from page 54) because it represents one of the main points of the paper that you don’t always have to have a technical explanation for everything, or an equation to understand things, sometimes the simple things and enjoying them are just as powerful.

“I could go. I could simply angle off the path, take one step after another, and be on my way. I could walk to Point Borrow, Mount Mckinley, Hudson’s Bay. My summer jacket is put away; my winter jacket is warm” (Dillard, 252).

I like this quote because up until this point Dillard has emphasized the idea of migrating south. She has been talking about the birds, their restlessness and their excitement to migrate south, she has been depicting the weather getting cooler. This is a turning point, the point when she talks about the idea of grabbing her winter coat, setting off and going north.

Modern science and technology have given us the engineering techniques to maesure, analyze, and take apart the immediate neighborhood, including the neighbors. but this knwoledge adds not much to our understanding of thigns. ‘Knowledge is power,’ said Francis Bacon, reat great-grandfather of the nuclear age. Power, exactly- hat’s been the point of the game all along. But power does not lead to wisdom, even less to understanding. Sympathy, love, phsycal contact-touching- are better means to so fine an end. -51

This passage reminded me of our Whitman reading from the first day of class. Regardless of who is an “expert”, or how much we know of something scientifically, there is still a sense of awe that cannot be replaced by facts, data sets, experiments within a lab. Wisdom can be sent to you in numerous capacities, from sources that may not be accepted as those that usually gant people knowledge and understanding. Sometimes we need to look within to connect with something or to best grasp a concept, rather than look to the greater scientific communit for something that has been agreed upon and tested using variables and hypothesis.

To each their own.

The leaves we see piled along curbs or packed into bags in the winter are not so great for the environment. The freely piled leaves get into the sewage system and can cause algae and affect water quality, and those in bags end up in landfills. These articles suggest leaving leaves on lawns is beneficial for soil regeneration, food for animals during the winter months, and fertilization that occurs from leaf breakdown. Instead of raking and piling leaves they suggest “leave the leaves”, mulch the leaves, and/or compost them.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/30459245/uconn-laboratory-manager-explains-importance-of-not-raking-leaves
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2015/11/08/1-leaf-removal-isnt-good-for-environment.html

“In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, recreating the world, and you meet him at some serene work, and see how it is exhausted and debauched veins expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten” (Thoreau 341).

This impression of spring expressed by Thoreau struck me. Everything does seem new and innocent in the spring, and he extends this to man.

“In the spring the wish to wander is partly composed of an unnamable irritation, born of long inactivity; in the fall the impulse is more pure, more inexplicable, and more urgent.” (Dillard 249).

This impression of spring, as well as fall, expressed by Dillard also stood out to me. She has observed that the bustle of and wish to wander in spring and fall are of a different nature.

“What can you think of a bird that crashes into glass and creeps headfirst down the trunk of a pine?” (50 Watching the Birds)

I understand the point he was trying to make here but still, the point of crashing into glass is a problem created by humans. This just makes me think of all we have learned and seen with birds hitting glass, especially around campus.

“For a lifetime or two, or maybe three, I think I’ll settle for the sedate career, serene and soaring, of the humble turkey buzzard…And contemplate this world we love from a silent and considerable height” (55 Watching the Birds).

This paints a tempting picture, if reincarnation were real. The idea of being able to observe the world from the highest of heights and to know what’s going on below but being able to choose to not be involved, that sounds like a dream.

“In the spring the wish to wander is partly composed of an unnamable irritation, born of long inactivity; in the fall the impulse is more pure, more inexplicable, and more urgent” (249 Northing).

I think this is beautifully said and very accurate. In spring there is a sense of restlessness, mainly to do with no longer having to be cooped up, but in the fall, there is a sense of urgency, perhaps even danger, that drives the restlessness.