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When looking at Jomaira’s images, I was actually a little startled.  Not because their image reflects a dimension of silence I seldom imagine, but because several years ago, I would have likely put up a very similar image of silence.  What startled me was that I didn’t realize how my first-gut connotations of silence have shifted in recent years.  Before, my initial thoughts and feelings of silence would have been ones that were associated with oppression, the inability to speak, absence, dark—concepts that I think are evoked when looking at their images.  But recently, I often associate silence with more positive notions and less tension.  Just as one example of how and why, I think of silence and light together and chose my photo accordingly.  We often forget how remarkably silent light is given what it does.  Light, unassuming and silent, has capabilities that range from giving us the capacity of sight, the dichotomy of day and night, and also life itself.

While scrolling through the visuals of silence on Serendip, I found myself deliberately returning to the image of Irene’s bedroom. I was captivated by the soft lighting, the warm brown colors and the simplicity of its decoration. I was reminded of my own bedroom back home. Similarly, the image of my bedroom is a place of peace and rest with its array of books, wall of mirrors and made bed. While I enjoyed seeing a bedroom that projected similar sentiments of comfort and intimacy, I know that the appealing visual of my bedroom is a facade. In contrast to the expected hospitable nature of a bedroom, my bedroom was a rather lonely and confined space for much of my life. So, as much as I wanted to feel the welcoming silence emanating from Irene’s image, I could not ignore how it was a visual reminder of my isolating relationship with silence.

Hey everyone! I just finished reading the one and half chapters of Solnit’s “A Field Guide to Getting Lost”, and I had some exciting and funny experience that I am eager to share with you all. I am very attracted by a sentence which says to lose oneself is to be “utterly immersed in what is present so that its surroundings fade away.” While reading it, I was thinking “that is the right words I was looking for in yesterday’s essay!” In the essay I wrote for this week, I talked about my experience sitting on the grass slope and relaxing. Just now, I referred to the Friday essay and see what exactly Iwrote to express it. Surprisingly I found out that I actually said “I didn’t feel I was at lost.” This is really interesting! How we define a word definitely influence how we express. In Solnit’s book, I totally loved her idea about losing oneself and the way of her expression. However, before I read her way of saying it, I used a completely opposite way to describe the same thing. In my Friday essay, by using "lost", I was trying to express the situation where people feel idle, bored, and worthless. But Solnit’s “lost” is to be “fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery.” I want to share this reflection with you in order to make a point that, sometimes even when people are trying to say the same thing, they use different words to express themselves. To avoid misunderstanding, we need to patiently communicate and develop our skills on expressing.

reflections on a Walk

Before I begin writing about my experiences of silencing/being silenced, I think it is important note that it was difficult for me to think of such a time, and the privilege that comes with that.  It privileges me because I can see myself as neither oppressor nor subordinated in this regard, at least on the surface.  When I think of silencing someone, I think stereotypically yelling “silence!” as we saw from many popular movie scenes in the youtube clip.  I would like to think that is hard for me to remember silencing someone because it is not something I do, but I am sure that is not the case.  Even if I haven’t directly yelled “silence!” at someone, there are probably times I have silenced a person or group either with an offhand comment or by being a bystander and not helping a person that I recognized as needing a voice (i.e.: watching someone be bullied).  However, memories of being oppressed are, in general, easier to conjure up than memories of being an oppressor. 

I'm Rachel, a senior bio major, NBS concentrator, and english minor. Ranking my explorative jaunt around campus I came up with:

a)

1. Park Science 20
2. Morris Woods
3. Campus Center parking lot
4. Glass staircase in Dalton
5. English House I

b)

            Familiarity and with that comfort had a significant effect on where I felt happiest. As a science major I spend a significant portion of my Bryn Mawr experience in Park. I also like 20: it is bright and open with enough space to spread out and be comfortable. You can watch both people and nature out the window but without being scrutinized yourself.

            I grew up at a school where recess was mandatory. Twice a day (rain, shine, or two feet of snow) we were outside; sometimes playing capture the flag in the woods, orienteering, skating on the creek, or swimming in the “watering hole,” as we called it. The woods take me back there. They’re familiar and constant.

            I don’t spend a lot of quality time hanging out in the parking lot or anything, but I often pass through on my way to class, from the campus center, back to my dorm. This summer portions were blocked off as Ed Harmon and a host of others planted, cut down, and transformed the space between Merion and the CC. I approve of the transformation to my thoroughfare.

“I’m not going to dignify that with a response.” In my family, we use this as a jokey phrase when one family member insults another in a facetious manner. Though it becomes a laughing matter as the insulting party is chastened and the insulted vindicated, choosing not to dignify a truly offensive action with any sort of reply or reaction can be a powerful and provocative use of silence as a statement in and of itself. At my high school, we used our silence as a tool to combat the hatred of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), in a different manner of protest than that used by the Occupy demonstrators in Esty’s picture, who used their voices loudly to make a statement.  Instead, we stood united against the WBC’s attempts to get a rise out of us or tear us apart.

Hello everyone! I'm Sarah Shaw and I'm a senior English major at BMC.

My Happiness Ranking

1. Campus Center Parking Lot

2. English House

3. Dalton Staircase

4. Park 20

5. Morris Woods

Okay, folks, I think I've found what we've (well, I've) been looking for (ta dah!):
a way that you can read the articles for this class (all your classes?) on your computer,
and annotate the electronic text, without having to print anything out.

These are the steps that worked for me:
1) download (the free) Adobe Reader X from http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html
2) open up one of the pdfs assigned for class reading
3) The Comment & Markup toolbar doesn’t appear by default, so either
select View > Comment > Annotations, or click the Comment button in the Task toolbar.
This will make both the highlighting and the sticky notes functions available, so go to town!
4) There are tutorials on how to use other features @
 http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/site/misc/annotating.pdf
but, for now, these functionalities are enough for me!
Have fun--

Yours in the service of paper-less-ness
("I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues"),
A.