Inuksuit

Our command of Inuit is not what it should be, but here at GORP headquarters we know a better deal when we see one.  On Sunday afternoon, in a performance that is free and open to the public, the University of Richmond will stage John Luther Adams’s ecological composition Inuksuit at the Jenkins Greek Theatre, just above Westhampton Lake.  GORP will be there – and not at Great Shiplock Park – because, well, this sounds like a whole lot more fun than picking up trash:

Thoreau recorded the momentous social and environmental changes of the industrial revolution through describing the interactions of natural and man-made sound: the “music” of the wind on the telegraph wire, the interaction between birdsong and train whistles, the play of wind and whirring sawmills. For Thoreau, close listening gave these ‘found sounds’ the vividness of musical events. The Alaska-based composer John Luther Adams (b. 1953) composes the momentous social and environmental changes of our era, documenting climate change and cultural loss in sound itself.

In collaboration with the Grammy Award winning Eighth Blackbird ensemble, the University of Richmond will stage Adams’ monumental ecological composition -Inuksuit (an Inuit word meaning ‘in the capacity of the human’).  The 90-minute composition, scored for 99 drummers, will be performed in the wooded area of the campus along Westhampton Lake. Composed to blend (and confuse) the sounds of nature and humanity, Adams invites us to hear our world as Thoreau heard Walden.

The performance starts at 4:00 p.m. and ends at 5:30.  Parking is available at the Modlin Center for the Arts (for directions click here).

Afterward, for those so inclined, we will make our way to Palani Drive for dinner.

Hope you can join us.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

 

Trails to Rails

April 7, en route to Texas Beach.

“The thing that strikes me now when I think about the Wilderness of Childhood is the incredible degree of freedom my parents gave me to adventure there. A very grave, very significant shift in our idea of childhood has occurred since then. The Wilderness of Childhood is gone; the days of adventure are past. The land ruled by children, to which a kid might exile himself for at least some portion of every day from the neighboring kingdom of adulthood, has in large part been taken over, co-opted, colonized, and finally absorbed by the neighbors.” – Michael Chabon

 

Into the great glut of adult-directed spring activities goes GORP.  Earlier in the week we were feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that we’ve got going on, not to mention depressed over another act of senseless violence, this one violating an outdoor activity that hits close to home.  We were prepared to yield to the demands of the swim meets, soccer games, school festivals, social commitments and whatever else we’ve stuffed into our spring weekends and push off our sixth GORP outing until time somehow slowed down.  But maybe it is times like this when we most need to get our children outside in nature, to connect with what is basic and fundamental – to try to make time slow down for them.  For it is times like this when we are reminded that the time ahead is never guaranteed.

Last night, speaking to an audience at the University of Richmond, Richard Louv opened with the following reflection:

“Chased by an unending stampede of 2,000-pound automobiles and 4,000-pound SUVs, we cocoon inside our homes.  The assault continues.  Unsettling, threatening images charge through the television cable and overwhelm us.  Hyper-vigilance trumps mindfulness.  Where do we find respite?  The poet Wendell Berry offers direction:

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be . . .
I come into the peace of wild things . . .
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

Of course what I would so often like to be free from is my own children.  A weekend where they are all outside, messing about on their own from morning until night, while I come into the peace of a long nap, that’s the lost terrain I most long to recover.  Possibly this would be inappropriate for our 2-year-old – we might still have to supervise him or at least make sure the gates to the playground across the street are well secured – but that we have failed utterly to provide such a world for our older children, or failed to force them to create it for themselves, is a source of much handwringing in this household.

Monday’s massacre in Boston, on top of the earlier horror in Newtown, will only lead to even more careful monitoring of our children.  Although the bogeyman here at GORP headquarters is a not a terrorist or deranged 20-year-old but a two-ton Toyota with a texting driver, the end result is much the same.  We keep them close, on a short leash.

Should it be otherwise?  Our April 7th outing to Texas Beach included an encounter with railroad tracks that challenged my obviously limited capacity to adequately assess risk.  GORP has not had a truly stupid-daddy moment to date – and this one, my own children’s subsequent visions of a fast-approaching train bearing down on them notwithstanding, passed without incident – but it’s only a matter of time.  Much of what I think should be perfectly permissible would merit a visit from child protective services, and if I’ve learned anything in nearly ten years of parenting it is that much of what I think is flat-out wrong.  It’s not all wrong, but how to distinguish between what is wrong and what is right?

To fault our national obsession with childhood safety and risk minimization for the diminishment of childhood over the past thirty years would be a gross oversimplification of what is a highly complex cultural phenomenon.  Letting our kids loose to play chicken with freight trains is not the answer to this problem – however appealing that prospect seems to this parent most afternoons.  Besides, “Even if I do send them out,” Michael Chabon asks, “will there be anyone to play with?”

“What is the impact of the closing down of the Wilderness on the development of children’s imaginations? This is what I worry about the most. I grew up with a freedom, a liberty that now seems breathtaking and almost impossible. Recently, my younger daughter, after the usual struggle and exhilaration, learned to ride her bicycle. Her joy at her achievement was rapidly followed by a creeping sense of puzzlement and disappointment as it became clear to both of us that there was nowhere for her to ride it—nowhere that I was willing to let her go. Should I send my children out to play? ­ – Michael Chabon

A parent-led outing to Great Shiplock Park, where we will be Sunday afternoon, is a far cry from the wilderness of my imagination.  That wilderness may no longer exist.  Still, as Louv reminded us last night, there is wilderness all around us and perhaps the best thing we can do for our kids is to take them out into it ourselves.  If you can’t be with the nature you love, he said, love the nature you’re with.

   

GORP at the western end of the Texas Beach Trail.

 

G.O.R.P.

 

OUTING #5: Texas Beach Trail

“For eons, human beings spent most of their formative years in nature.  But within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically. Healing the broken bond between our young and nature is in everyone’s self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demand it, but also because our mental, physical and spiritual health depend upon it.” – Richard Louv

As spring continues its slow crawl into the Northern Hemisphere (thanks, apparently, to global warming), GORP is looking forward to its fifth outing, Saturday afternoon on the north bank of the James River.  Start time is 1:30 p.m.  We will continue our exploration of Texas Beach, hiking out and back from the eastern to western end, about three miles round trip.

Details follow.  Hope you can join us.  Anyone is welcome, so please don’t hesitate to invite others along.

  

G.O.R.P. outing #5

Date: Saturday, April 6, 2013

Location: Texas Beach Trail, James River Park System

Meeting time & location: 1:30 p.m. at the North Bank Trail/Texas Beach Parking Lot, just east of Maymont.

Directions:  From anywhere in the Fan, take Meadow St. SOUTH, past the entrance to Maymont, until it ends at Kansas Ave.  Turn left on Kansas Ave. and then, after a couple blocks, right on Texas Ave., which runs into the parking lot.  (Map here.)

Rough itinerary (which no one is obligated to follow):   Meet at the North Bank Trail/Texas Beach Parking Lot at 1:30 p.m.  At 1:45, we’ll hit the trail, crossing the railroad pedestrian walkway and then heading west along the Texas Beach Trail towards the Nickel Bridge.  Just past the bridge, at the trail’s end, we’ll turn around and retrace our steps home, stopping for any rock-hopping, tree crossings and messing about that strike our fancy.  Once back at Texas Beach, we will play a game or two of Manhunt.  The two oldest children present will get the first chance to escape.

Following the outing, those so inclined can join us for post-GORP treats at Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream near VCU.

What to bring:

• Water
• Hat and Gloves, plus layered clothes appropriate for the weather
• Waterproof jacket/shell
• Backpack, with snacks.
• Kids will probably get dirty and possibly wet, so you might also consider packing a change of clothes in your car.

SAFETY:  We ask that parents be responsible for the safety of their own children. 

Stroller friendly?  No.

Pets:  Pets are permitted but must be on a leash.

Weather forecast: Sunny with a high of 61 degrees.

PLAN “B” for Bowling:  If the weather is too wet or too cold we will instead go bowling at Sunset Lanes on West Broad (6540 West Broad Street), meeting there at 1:30 p.m.  Rates are $17 per person (shoes included) for two hours of bowling (2-3 games).  Sunset Lanes is kid-friendly: anyone old enough to walk is old enough to bowl.

 If Plan “B” is necessary, I will alert everyone by e-mail and post an update on this blog by no later than 11 a.m. on Saturday morning.

G.O.R.P.

 

March Madness

“It’s springtime!  Trees are stretching and yawning.  Buds are peeking.  Birds are gathering materials and building nests.  Seeds are seeking sunshine and sprouting.  Awaken a new sense of wonder for your children by discovering the offerings of spring.” – Jennifer Ward, i love dirt

 

The vernal equinox is not normally a cause for much celebration in our nature-challenged household.  In the blur of duties and demands of work and raising children, the transition from winter to spring has meant little more than lower heating bills, longer laps in the swimming pool, and a time change that takes about six months to get used to.  But now that we are on a seemingly permanent war-footing with the indoor world, our perspective is starting to change a little, and we now know, for example, what the vernal equinox actually is. 

Celebrating the vernal equinox.

This one, thanks to the long run of cold and cloudy weather all winter, couldn’t come soon enough, and on March 20^th we drove out to Goochland to celebrate its arrival.  There we sacralized the first day of spring a with a hastily organized (and probably illegal) campfire cookout, sacrificing hot dogs, marshmallows and our digestive tracts over an open fire.  “Dad, this is the best dinner I’ve ever had,” one of our children said soberly – in case you were wondering who regularly does the cooking here at GORP headquarters.

But apparently Mother Nature did not accept our offering.  If anything, the weather that’s followed has been worse.  By the weekend our collective mood was deteriorating in lockstep with the forecast, a condition only worsened by VCU’s lopsided loss in the NCAA basketball tournament.  (Losing by 25 points to Michigan was depressing enough; must we also have Michigan’s weather?)  Tricycle Gardens, our post-basketball destination, was highly inspiring on a theoretical level, but to a horticulturally-illiterate family like this one it provided the psychic lift of a poetry reading.




Into the urban jungle on the North Bank Trail.

Enthusiasm for Sunday’s outing along the James River was not high, and after changing the start time to avoid the coming storm of slush and snow we did not expect any help raising our spirits.  So it was a pleasant surprise to find three other families ready to set out with us from Oregon Hill.  The children immediately fell into an extended game of tag, or chase, or something that involved a great deal of continuous running.  The precipitation held off.  Our mood quickly lifted.



High water at Texas Beach.

A walk in the woods is the most reliable cure for any low-grade depression, and on this gray and dreary Sunday morning the North Bank Trail did the trick.  It was nice to have the place mostly to ourselves, an urban wilderness with the emphasis on the natural, not the urban, wild.  That going for a walk in the woods requires such heroic feats of parental engineering is a source of great consternation in our household.  The fantasy of stepping out our back door into a backcountry world of woods and walking trails – while still having a coffee shop or a restaurant, not to mention a few friends, out our front – has a tight grip on our imagination.  We struggle to reconcile ourselves to the facts on the ground: the poorly integrated urban parks, the want of greenways, the unsightly sprawl and scarcity of public land further afield, that out our back door there exists just a small alley.  And then we wonder, if we had such a space, whether our kids would even use it.  Whether the pathological busyness of modern life – the screens, the schedules, the suffocating supervision and structure – has rendered that space unavailable.


Well, it has been a long winter.  These are the idle speculations of a mind in the grip of cabin fever.  Obviously we need some warmth and sunshine.  Our next GORP outing is April 6, a week from Saturday, when we will continue our exploration of the north bank of the James River – come rain or come snow or come shine.  Hope you can join us.

 

“We belong out there.  There’s a rich, multifarious, lush green world outside that we are part of.  And it’s healthy.  Good for the body, and yes, good for the soul.  ‘Outside lies magic,’ says John Stilgoe.  Outside lies a world of marvels, a thousand dormant associations to be tucked away and recalled later in life.  Outside lie stories to unfold, miracles to witness, hardships to overcome, fears to stare down, people and animals to meet – life in its full range of experience.  We can sense much of this inside too, but it is recalled more deeply, felt more intensely, when we get out.” – Rick Van Noy, A Natural Sense of Wonder




GORP at Texas Beach.

At Tricycle Gardens, proof of spring.

 

G.O.R.P.

Earlier Start

Friends,

On account of the weather, and in the hopes of avoiding the worst of it, we are moving the start time for today's outing on the North Bank Trail up to 10:30 a.m.

Details about today's outing on the North Bank Trail can be found here. Again, we will meet on Oregon Hill at the end of Lauren Street at 10:30 a.m.

We apologize for the last-minute change of plans and any inconvenience this causes.

Best wishes,

Ben and Mo 

 

G.O.R.P.

OUTING #4: North Bank Trail & Texas Beach

“Perhaps, most importantly, if the kids are to get out, I will have to find time.  We are usually in a rush to go somewhere, from one organized activity to another.  I’ve heard many people describe their sense that time has picked up pace.  Children used to have whole stretches of time to think and wander or pick through clover.  ‘I used to spend hours in the backyard,’ writes Annie Dillard, ‘thinking God knows what, and peeling the mottled bark of a sycamore, idly, littering the grass with dried lappets and strips.’  Letting them off the achievement treadmill, ironically, leads to more creative, resilient kids.” – Rick Van Noy, A Natural Sense of Wonder

 

UP NEXT: The North Bank Trail...

Whether GORP is just another organized activity taking us in the wrong direction remains to be seen. Raising children, like climate change, is an unfolding natural disaster in which most of the consequences are revealed long after the damage has been done.  The man-made destruction of healthy child development that is occurring in much of this country – GORP headquarters being a coal-fired power plant of parent-spewing pollution – is well-documented but hopelessly complex and distressing and thus largely ignored.

In education the implications are especially tangled and fraught, reflecting the challenge of trying to reconcile a billion different ideas with a billion different kids and a billion other variables.  One idea, for example, is to embrace technology, fingers crossed that our child’s attention span and capacity for deep thought won’tbe wiped out in the process.  Another, one beautifully alluded to here by Sabot at Stony Point kindergarten teacher Mary Driebe, is to embrace Mother Nature.  These aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive propositions of course, though, crucially, there is a zero-sum component to our allocation of time and resources: time spent in front of a screen is time that is not spent outside or otherwise engaged with the actual world. 

... and Texas Beach.

Not that we know the best answer ourselves – our venture, it often seems, is one of experimenting with, and then ruling out, some of the worst – and any suggestion that there is some one-size-fits-all solution to begin with is just adding to the problem.  But here at GORP headquarters we’re grateful our youngest guinea pig will be attending Sabot next year (by the grace of God!) and not ECPI.     

In any case, we are doubling down on the logic of GORP this weekend, with excursions scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday.  First up is the Down on theFarm Party at Tricycle Gardens , Saturday afternoon from 2-5 p.m. at 9th and Bainbridge Streets in Manchester.  (GORP preview here.) 

Then on Sunday afternoon – start time is 1:30 p.m. – we will hit the North Bank Trail for an out-and-back adventure to Texas Beach (2-3 miles total), a game of “Manhunt” being the featured halftime activity.  Itinerary and other details can be found below.

If you’d like to further increase this weekend’s degree of difficulty, join us Saturday morning at the Carpenter Theatre for the Richmond Symphony’s final Lollipops concert of the season.  Performance begins at 11:00 a.m., with a pre-concert festival starting an hour earlier.

Hope you can join us at some point this weekend.  Anyone is welcome, so please don’t hesitate to spread the word. -Ben

 

G.O.R.P. outing #4

Date: Sunday, March 24, 2013

Location: North Bank Trail and Texas Beach, James River Park System

Meeting time & location: 1:30 p.m. at the southern end of Laurel Street, in Oregon Hill, overlooking Belle Isle (at the intersection of S. Laurel St. and Oregon Hill Parkway).

Directions:  From anywhere in the Fan, take Cary Street to S. Laurel St. (a block or two past VCU’s Cary Street Gym, just past the Sweet Frog frozen yogurt shop at 815 W. Cary St.).  Take a right on Laurel and follow Laurel until it ends (see map).

Rough itinerary (which no one is obligated to follow):   Meet at the end of Laurel St. in Oregon Hill, overlooking Belle Isle, at 1:30 p.m.  At 1:45, we’ll drop down to the North Bank Trail and head west, upriver, a mile or so to Texas Beach.  Once there we’ll break for “Manhunt”, Stone Pictures (anyone especially inspired can contribute to the World Beach Project), Stone Tower Challenge, and Rock Skipping – in addition to general exploring and messing about.  Then, whenever we feel like it, we’ll hike back to the cars.  Those so inclined can join us for a post-GORP treat at Sweet Frog (815 West Cary St.) on the way home.

What to bring:

n  Water

n  Hat and Gloves, plus layered clothes appropriate for the weather

n  Waterproof jacket/shell

n  Backpack, with snacks.

n  Kids will probably get dirty and possibly wet, so you might also consider packing a change of clothes in your car.

SAFETY:  We ask that parents be responsible for the safety of their own children. 

Stroller friendly?  No.

Pets:  Pets are permitted but must be on a leash.

Weather forecast: Overcast, 50% chance of rain, high of 43 degrees.

PLAN “B” for Bowling:  If the weather is too wet or too cold we will instead go bowling at Sunset Lanes on West Broad (6540 West Broad Street), meeting there at 1:30 p.m.  Rates are $17 per person (shoes included) for two hours of bowling (2-3 games).  Sunset Lanes is kid-friendly: anyone old enough to walk is old enough to bowl.

 If Plan “B” is necessary, I will alert everyone by e-mail  and post an update on this blog by no later than 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.

 

G.O.R.P.



How Green is Your Garden?

The Land of Misfit Plants

Here at GORP headquarters our dysfunctional relationship with the natural world begins just a few steps out the front door.  Anyone who has been here has seen the results: the overgrown tangle of English ivy that now comprises the bulk of our front garden, the odd mix of flora and shrubbery and fallen leaves it partially conceals, the curious collection of dead potted plants.  All about is the debris of childhood and winter.  A storm-damaged dogwood tree clings to life in the midst of it all, held together by a child’s affection and an improvised duct-tape splint.  Somewhere a member of the Fan District Association is compiling a secret record of black-listed property owners, and our name is near the top.

In this domain, as in so many others, we need help, and on March 23^rd we invite you to join us looking for it at Tricycle Gardens, Richmond’s first urban, year-round, highly productive farm.  From 2-6 pm Tricycle Gardens is hosting a (free) Down on the Farm Party at its urban farm location in Manchester, “celebrating the season of planting while enjoying healthy, local food that comes from our urban agricultural endeavors.”

Tricycle Gardens is also offering a number of workshops this spring designed for the novice urban gardener:  Seed Starting (March 16), Urban Container Gardening (April 6, May 18), Learn How to Compost (April 13, June 1).  Costs range from $30-$60 per person.

Our own past endeavors to green GORP headquarters, grand and noble ambitions to the contrary, have had a mostly browning effect, the sort of result one might expect from an easily distracted and highly preoccupied primary caregiver – or a blind chimpanzee with a credit line at Lowe’s.  Undaunted, we have talked this winter of constructing a vertical garden, and perhaps a rooftop garden, though the former would require knowledge we do not posses and the latter a great windfall of funds.  Lowering our sights a bit, we are now hoping to plant something at home this spring that will survive until June.

Contemplating the dismal harvest of dead and misfit plants that constitutes our gardening efforts to date, I am reminded of the likelihood that GORP itself will wither on the vine if it remains a solo venture.  So if you have ideas for future GORP outings – favorite hikes or outdoor places, favorite family adventures, any thoughts on ways we can get our kids (and ourselves) more engaged with the world outside – please don’t hesitate to pass them on to me.  If you have ideas regarding how GORP could be improved in general, those would be very welcome here as well.  Though we’ve said it before, it bears repeating: We have no idea what we are doing.

“Our ties to the green world are often subtle and unexpected.  It is not merely that hemoglobin and chlorophyll bear a striking similarity in structure, or that plants provide the pleasure of food and flowers.  When people who garden find new friendships with neighbors, when a walk in the woods brings relief from pent-up tension, or when a potted begonia restores vitality to a geriatric patient, we can begin to sense the power of these connections and their importance to physical and psychological well-being...

“There are deep reasons for our love affair with nature.  We are creatures who evolved in an environment already green.  Within our cells live memories of the role vegetation played in fostering our survival as a species.  Plants reconnect that distant past, calling forth feelings of tranquility and harmony, restoring mental and physical health in a contemporary, technological world.  Whether in pots, gardens, fields, or forests, living plants remind us of that ancient connection.” – Charles Lewis, Green Nature/Human Nature: The Meaning of Plants in Our Lives

G.O.R.P.