I am writing this message in late fall when the oak tree outside my window is a brilliant auburn and the plants below a mess of wilted green and dying leaves. The dogs snuffle through the underbrush looking for the critters that live there. Each time I look down from my home office window, I think, “I’ll have to clear out those plants.” Yet I procrastinate, enjoying the passive observation of bloom and decay.
When you read this message, it will be early January—cold, leafless, and often gray, as Pennsylvania winters are wont to be. I am looking forward to what the wild garden will look like then. This is my pandemic silver lining—attending to the garden daily, checking in on the soil and shrubs, making sure there is a place for toads and chipmunks to hide, watching plants grow, blossom, wither, and die.
We have worked in the midst of terrible losses and yet we have persevered. Being a member of this wonderful community—committed, charitable, healing—is another silver lining. In Humanities, we’ve been busy designing new courses, applying for and receiving grant funding, gathering data, and writing up results. We’ve explored new ideas, tested out old ones, and challenged our perspectives. Above all, we’ve been paying attention—for many of us, the world as it is lived is the setting for our investigations.
Read on to see what we’ve been up to.