how berkeley...
today, i left the i-house (after a most interesting first meeting with another graduate student) in the afternoon to head to a meeting at the i-school (ha ha, i-house, i-school!). it was raining and i was grateful for having carried my umbrella. as i walked, protectively pulling the sides of the umbrella so that the wind wouldn't blow it away, i saw a girl lying face-up on the stretch of grass outside kroeber hall. she just lay there in the wet grass, arms and feet stretched out, eyes closed, no umbrella/raincoat/nothing. completely unperturbed by the wind, the rain, she embraced the wetness - of the raindrops, the grass - and the windiness. me and my efforts to close myself in vs. she and her efforts to open herself out. hm.
was it just her? was it berkeley? and another reinforcement of ways in which one can be?
was it just her? was it berkeley? and another reinforcement of ways in which one can be?
2 comments:
Thank you for this observant post. Isn't it interesting how we can feel so clearly that there's a certain way we ought to behave in a particular set of circumstances... and then to encounter somehow who can totally open us up to new ways of thinking and seeing?
bb: yes, i was blown away by that realization. there are so many ways to be, and so many ways to think. and every time we find ourselves firmly choosing a path for us to move on, we could totally remind ourselves of incidents such as these and wonder... is that really the best way to be?
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