You are here

Long bike ride

Chatting with Phil this morning, I realized that my class is like the boardwalk at a bog. A handful of students just stand at the trail head and never walk out onto the boardwalk at all. A fair number of students just tramp on through. They start on one side and walk straight through to the other side, staring straight ahead the whole time. Some pay so little attention to where they're going, they miss a turn, fall off, and get sucked down into the mud. Others look around and discover cotton grass gently waving in the breeze, beautiful delicate orchids, interesting carnivorous plants, fascinating biological diversity, and compelling natural beauty -- they have a great time and some tell me it was their favorite experience at the university. All the while, I wave my arms and try to get people to look at the cool stuff or run around trying to pull people out of the mud. As the mud closes over them they say things like, "Why did you make us walk on this boardwalk anyway? Why couldn't we just drive around the bog on the highway?"