Campus pictures
Jun. 30th, 2004 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreI spent an hour today wandering around campus, camera in hand. Here are a few of the results.
The stairway to heaven? (The Chapel of the Sermon on the Mount-- I love the angled rooflines.)
Then maybe this is the way to the Other Place. (The main library stacks are in an underground vault; this is an emergency escape.)
Mennonites are very aware of their history of persecution. The interior of the chapel is deliberately designed to resemble a cave where they once worshiped secretly, with light filtering down from above, and low windows on the left representing the opening of the cave. Even on a bright day, the chapel is shadowy, and the electric lights are rather dim.
The prayer labyrinth, cut into a wildflower meadow. Unlike a maze, a prayer labyrinth is just a single path, with no wrong turns. Walking it in meditation is fascinating. Twice, you find yourself next to the center area-- and then abruptly turning away, to the outside of the circle, and to a quadrant you thought you'd already finished. The second time, you walk halfway around the very outside path, and then suddenly turn inwards, and after just one more hairpin turn you're in the center. The metaphor of the spiritual life is strong.
One day at lunch I sat with a couple of members of the grounds crew. The crew chief, an older man, was grumbling about how difficult it is to mow the grounds. "Do you know how many separate trees we have to mow around? 75! It's crazy... you wouldn't believe how long it takes, Sure, it looks nice, but it's a nuisance." After a pause, he smiled, and ruefully admitted, "Of course, I helped plant most of them, 25 years ago."
This is my favorite of those 75 trees. It seems to reach toward the heavens despite a hard life.
The stairway to heaven? (The Chapel of the Sermon on the Mount-- I love the angled rooflines.)
Then maybe this is the way to the Other Place. (The main library stacks are in an underground vault; this is an emergency escape.)
Mennonites are very aware of their history of persecution. The interior of the chapel is deliberately designed to resemble a cave where they once worshiped secretly, with light filtering down from above, and low windows on the left representing the opening of the cave. Even on a bright day, the chapel is shadowy, and the electric lights are rather dim.
The prayer labyrinth, cut into a wildflower meadow. Unlike a maze, a prayer labyrinth is just a single path, with no wrong turns. Walking it in meditation is fascinating. Twice, you find yourself next to the center area-- and then abruptly turning away, to the outside of the circle, and to a quadrant you thought you'd already finished. The second time, you walk halfway around the very outside path, and then suddenly turn inwards, and after just one more hairpin turn you're in the center. The metaphor of the spiritual life is strong.
One day at lunch I sat with a couple of members of the grounds crew. The crew chief, an older man, was grumbling about how difficult it is to mow the grounds. "Do you know how many separate trees we have to mow around? 75! It's crazy... you wouldn't believe how long it takes, Sure, it looks nice, but it's a nuisance." After a pause, he smiled, and ruefully admitted, "Of course, I helped plant most of them, 25 years ago."
This is my favorite of those 75 trees. It seems to reach toward the heavens despite a hard life.
