Civic Theater of Greater Lafayette

For most of us in graduate school, the choice isn’t really a choice. The answer is grades. But not just grades. The answer is conference papers and publications, research teams and defenses, and teaching evaluations. The answer to the question of career, social life, or health is simple. We are here for the degree. Everything else is distraction or procrastination. You can function on four hours of sleep. You can eat microwave dinners. You can ignore your friends…or translate social life into group work time.

Let me be clear here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with caring about your work. I love what I do. Yes, I get stressed and tired and frustrated. But what we are doing is interesting and challenging in the best way.

Still, that does not mean that it should suffocate out all other aspects of our lives. So many of the people that I know at Purdue are extremely creative. They are writers and designers and actors and poets. And that’s okay. It’s more than okay. It is brilliant. Academic work and creativity are not opposites that one must choose between. In my (admittedly short) experience, they are fuel for each other. Creative work makes me sharper, and academic work expands my imagination.

That is one of the reasons why I was thrilled to hear that my friend and fellow graduate student, Jessica Robinson, was going to be in a staged reading this semester. I had never been to a staged reading, but I was more than willing to go see her in it.

A group of friends (and grad students) went to the Lafayette Civic Theater to watch Jessica in ‘In the Next Room.’ I was immediately struck by the space. It had a homey quality, with a wide stage and seating that ensured every audience member would have a ‘good seat.’ As we waited, we examined the stage and the props that were before us. It seemed interesting, and I was excited to see what would happen. Then the cast walked out and promptly sat in the seats in front of the stage. I thought this was odd, but I was sure it would all work out.

And it did. The stage was not set for the reading we were there to see. Without props or setting, the cast stood up and read through the play with feeling and expression that I am not equipped to fully describe in this short space. They had no need of props.

I was so amazed by my friend up there performing in front of the audience. And I absolutely enjoyed seeing the show. So when she suggested going to see another performance, the Rain Maker, I was more than willing to join her. And that too was a fun experience.

I know that these will be the first of many performances that I see. And I hope that this is not the last time I see Jessica on stage. I haven’t asked her, but I am certain that getting to perform and do something creative that she loves improved her life. I’d bet she would say it was worth the hours she used not working on her academic career.

But still we hedge. We make excuses for why we would be irrational enough to engage in these time-consuming creative endeavors. I propose that these endeavors aid in our work, and, even if they don’t, that they are still worth doing.

(Cast image from Purdue Exponent) 

Horticulture Park

“Ordinarily I go to the woods alone, with not a single friend, for they are all smilers and talkers and therefore unsuitable.”

I know that it is winter, and that many of you, particularly those from warmer climes, may recoil at this idea. However, I must propose that visiting the Horticulture Park in January may be one of the best decisions that anyone could make in the Lafayette area.

The barren trees are not ugly. Rather they are stripped to their most essential elements, displaying the foundation of their beauty. It is possible to see much further throughout the little wood without so much leaves and underbrush. And the sounds seem to carry much clearer. I could hear the woodpecker so distinctly, and I could even hear the sound a squirrel makes when chewing its food up in the tree branches. It sounds gross but it wasn’t.

“I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my own way of praying, as you no doubt have yours.”

The Horticulture Park belongs to Purdue University and is situated near the corner of State St./State Rd. 26 and McCormick Rd. There is no cost to enter. I do wish to avoid ‘Purdue’ places and events in this blog, but the Horticulture Park must be the exception. I am from a place where a national forest was my back yard (literally) and I sometimes miss the quiet it can bring. The Horticulture Park is small, like a child of those great woods, but it is still something quite marvelous.

I will admit that I did something strange on my first winter visit there a week ago. I sat on a bench I came across and read poetry out loud. (Just a couple poems). And I could read them out loud, for there was not another person there. Later I saw a lone runner heading for one of the trails, but that was it.

“Besides, when I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds, until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.”

I plan to return to the Horticulture Park this winter, and to return often. I saw an article recently about something called ‘forest bathing’ (or something close to that) for relaxation, which I found to be an absurd name initially. But it is relaxing and a reminder that whatever things I am worrying about are quite small after all. So, I say: Go! Go to the Horticulture Park, whether it be alone or with a friend. (Website: http://www.arboretum.purdue.edu/come-learn/horticulture-park/). And if you would like, I would probably be happy to go with you.

“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.”

(Poem is Mary Oliver’s How I Go to the Woods)

(Photos to be added after next visit)