Labyrinth at Daniel Chapel
The Furman labyrinth rests quietly, nestled between evergreen shrubs and tucked beside the chapel’s sturdy walls. It catches the passing rays of the sun and reveals the shifting shadows of nearby trees. The labyrinth unassumingly offers invitations toward mindful moments, deep breaths, contemplation, whimsy, and peace. Like others around the world, this labyrinth is part of a great history. Beautiful versions of ancient labyrinths have been traced to civilizations on every continent except Antarctica, and labyrinths have been appreciated by storytellers and pilgrims for over four thousand years. During the Middle Ages, labyrinths were built into the floors of grand cathedrals where Christian pilgrims imagined the circling paths as symbolic pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Today, people value labyrinths as tools to practice mindfulness, reflection, centeredness, and clarity. A labyrinth is not a maze. Unlike a maze, which is designed as a puzzle with choices to make and dead ends to avoid, a labyrinth has one path that leads to the center and back. After a person takes that first step on the grassy path, they just keep going, one step in front of the other, winding and turning and eventually ending in the center. Then they take the same path back out, trusting that the way will unfold before them. The Furman labyrinth was designed and built in 2005 thanks to a wonderful collaboration among the Cothran Center (formerly the Lilly Center), the Chaplain’s office, the Building & Grounds Department, and Dr. Robert Chance of the Art Department who created the beautiful mosaic in the middle. Student volunteers, staff, faculty, and alumni came together to lay the bricks into the ground. We talked and laughed and watched this beautiful installment materialize, brick by brick. Now, almost 20 years later, I like to think that a few pilgrims have followed the winding path between the bricks, pausing at the center as others have done before and after them, then emerging from their little journey a bit more centered and whole.Reflections for the Furman LabyrinthWhile many labyrinths are indoor constructions (as in the cathedral at Chartres), ours was intentionally and organically placed outside--upon the earth, beneath the sky, surrounded by trees and sweet smelling plants. Whatever your personal reason for walking the path of this labyrinth, you are invited to be intimately connected with the natural world. Take off your shoes and walk barefoot, if you dare, because this, like all creation, is holy ground. Allow it to be that for you today.Why might you choose to walk such a weird path that gets you to nowhere and back? Exactly because it gets you nowhere and back! There is nothing for you to do but walk-- no hurry, no dictated outcome, no one to please or entertain, and no way to get lost. This walk is free space—sometimes an unexpected threshold to transcendence. Take it slowly; go alone; go in silence; go in and out as often as you like; relish the peace and the potential for unbidden revelation. While it is preferable to walk alone, the labyrinth walk can also be a powerful experience for a group if conducted so that individuals can still have silence with adequate space and time to walk thoughtfully. While waiting their turn, other members of the group might protectively surround the outside of the circle, with downcast eyes, in caring silence or prayer for those walking. The labyrinth walk may serve as an open metaphor or parable that can stimulate a personal or communal journey into deeper truth and wholeness. In that vein, here are some reflection possibilities:1. Enter with a deep personal question for which you are seeking an answer. Just acknowledge the question as you begin and then let it go. Don’t overthink. In fact, don’t try to think about it at all! But don’t be surprised if a new way of thinking about the issue arises as you allow yourself to find and feel the ground. You may want to have a journal ready at the end. The thoughts that come after the walk can be the ones you are seeking. 2. Enter with a mental or spiritual weight that you may be carrying on your shoulders and for which you are seeking resolution. You may want to symbolize the weight of that burden by carrying along a stone into the labyrinth and leaving it in the middle as a symbol of release or acceptance. As you go in, name the burden to yourself and acknowledge your feelings. Then let the silence and walking ground you, give you courage and possibly offer a way forward. 3. Walk with no agenda at all and wait for whatever is there for you in the calming, unhurried, meditative silence. You may find new directions or creative ideas. You may discover something new about yourself. You may just rest. Contributor information:Dr. Elaine Nocks retired as an emeritus professor of psychology at Furman in 2011. During the last ten years of her 35-year tenure, she helped to design and direct what was originally called the Lilly Center for Theological Reflection on Vocation (now the Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection).Lindley (Sharp) Curtis graduated from Furman in 2004, and she was an active participant in Cothran (then Lilly) Center activities, including work as an intern. She initiated the construction of the labyrinth --- a project that was brought to life by staff members from the Center and the Chapel, together with students and other friends.Many individuals and groups have been guided through the labyrinth in the years since then.
Rock Garden, Townes Science Center
The rock garden on the grounds of the Townes Science Center holds a special memory for me. It was where I sat in the early afternoon of August 21, 2017, to witness a total solar eclipse – the “Great American Eclipse” seen by millions in the US that day as the moon’s shadow swept across the country from Oregon to the South Carolina coast. Even though the moon crosses the earth-sun line every month, the moon’s shadow usually misses the earth, because the plane of the moon’s orbit is tilted by a few degrees from the plane of the earth’s solar orbit. Only rarely does the alignment occur in a way that causes the moon’s shadow to strike the earth in populated land areas, creating a total eclipse for people living in those areas. Thus, for most humans, an eclipse happens only once in a lifetime, if that. It’s not only the rarity of the event that makes the moment so memorable, though. As I watched the moon begin to block my view of the sun that day (using safety glasses with special filters, of course), as I began to notice the scene around me darkening and the air cooling, as I gazed during the brief minutes of totality at the sun’s corona peeking around the black disk of the moon, and then as I watched all the changes reverse as the moon continued in its orbit, I was overwhelmed with a sense of where my tiny self was located in space and in time. My awareness, normally restricted to my immediate surroundings and my daily routines, expanded to the size of the solar system and the timescale of planetary orbits.But there’s no need to wait for a rare celestial event to open our awareness in this way. If you sit in the Rock Garden today, either in person or in your imagination, there are invitations all around you to experience, and reflect on, your location in space and time on a scale larger than that of your daily routine. For example, look at the compass mosaic laid out in pavers in the middle of the courtyard between Plyler Hall and Riley Hall. Four points of its six-pointed star show you the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West. The north-south axis orients you to the axis of the earth’s rotation; the east-west axis orients you to the apparent paths of the sun, moon, planets, and stars across the sky as the earth turns over 24 hours. Now consider an evolutionary timescale. Hold up your hand and imagine peering down into a skin cell, then the cell nucleus, then the DNA. Your DNA pattern was inherited from your biological parents, and their DNA was inherited from their parents, and so on, back and back through time. Evolutionary biologists and paleontologists tell us that if we go back far enough, about 300,000 years, we find that a relatively small group of peoples in southern Africa are the common ancestors of all modern humans. So just consider how your own DNA places you in relation to other present humans on earth, and to our common evolutionary story. Finally, look at the Rock Garden rocks themselves. To name a particular one, look at the rock I sat on on the day of the eclipse, located just beside the sidewalk between Plyer and Riley Halls – a chunk of gneiss from the area near the North Carolina/ South Carolina border on Highway 25. This rock fragment from the Inner Piedmont geologic province can remind you that the Southern Appalachian Mountains are hundreds of millions of years old. Geologists tell us that the mountains formed when the continent ancestral to North America collided with the continent ancestral to Africa to form Pangaea, about 270 million years ago. The collision between the continental plates pushed up mountains higher than today’s Rockies. Those mountains gradually wore down as the plates separated, leaving us with the gentle forest-covered Southern Appalachian Mountains today. Your moments in the Rock Garden have made you aware that you exist on many scales of time, from the daily to the geologic. Does your awareness of yourself as part of this bigger history give you new insight into your life’s meaning and purpose?Wherever you live now, where can you go and what can you do to widen your perspective in this way? What will help you more fully realize, in the words of poet Mary Oliver, “your place in the family of things”?For further reading:“Rock and Botanical Garden in the Charles Townes Science Center” (Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Furman University)“When Did We Become Fully Human? What Fossils and DNA Tell Us about the Evolution of Modern Intelligence.” (Nicholas R. Longrich, The Conversation, Sept 2020)Birth of the Mountains: The Geologic Story of the Southern Appalachian Mountains (USGS)Contributor information: Susan Smart D’Amato has spent much of her personal history on the campus of Furman University, from checking books out of the Duke Library as the middle-school-aged daughter of a history professor, to completing her BS degree in 1977, to teaching physics from 1983 to 2021. She is a past Faculty Director of the Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection and values an opportunity to continue to be involved with the center’s programs.
Joseph Vaughn Plaza
I am grateful for this opportunity to reflect on the historic nature of the erection of a memorial to the first African American to attend Furman University. As a black aluma, this memorial affirms the inclusion of black students on Furman’s campus. As I approach my sixties and embrace my role as an elder, I am even more conscious and aware of the need to leave a legacy. I wonder what future Furman alum may be reading my words 50 years from now. I wanted to make some attempt to reconcile what it means for me, an African American woman, from a family with less than enough financial resources, to attend Furman University, with the knowledge that I now have that Furman’s founder, Richard Furman, defended the institution of slavery. As I re-read Furman’s “Exposition of the Views of the Baptists Relative to the Coloured Population,” written nearly 200 years ago, I wonder what his reaction would be to a memorial to Joseph Allen Vaughn. Therefore, I ask myself, why me? Why now? Why am I the one who has been given this opportunity? How is it that a descendant of kidnapped and enslaved Africans is reflecting on the significance of the statue and memorial on campus to the first African American undergraduate to attend Furman?During my time as an undergraduate, I was involved in a number of Furman organizations, including serving as President of the Student League for Black Culture (SLBC). A part of the mission of SLBC was to create a sense of welcome and belonging for black students. I knew of Joseph Vaughn as a student, but did not have an opportunity to meet Joe before he passed in 1991. I did not realize it then, but that work as an undergraduate laid the foundation for me to return to Furman in 1996 as a professional staff member in Student Affairs. I had an opportunity to create that sense of welcome and belonging for black students as well as other underrepresented populations at Furman. I also worked to reconnect Black alumni to Furman, as many had received their degrees and not returned or been involved with Furman. When I arrived in 1996, a scholarship in Joe’s honor had been established, but not well funded. As black alumni can attest, I was very committed to increasing the gifts so that more students can benefit from the scholarship. I was elated to learn of the Board of Trustees commitment to allocate $1,000,000 to the Joseph Vaughn Scholarship fund. Before my departure from Furman in 2014, I was honored to be a member of the group that planned various events to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of Joseph Vaughn’s admittance to Furman. Furman continued this work and became a member of the Universities Studying Slavery consortium. This led to the creation of the Task Force on Slavery and Justice. The Task Force on Slavery & Justice courageously and honestly made reference to Furman's Exposition on the Views of the Baptists Relative to the Coloured Population, and includes the following in its description of Richard Furman:[Quoting here] Furman was also a slaveholder, and in 1822, authored a Biblical defense of slavery at the request of fellow clergymen in the wake of a hurricane and the foiled Denmark Vesey uprising in Charleston. With the creation of a Task Force on Slavery & Justice, the university initiated a formal reckoning with this legacy in 2017.The construction of the Joseph Vaughn Statue and Plaza is a key component of Furman’s reckoning. Indeed, the first recommendation of the Slavery and Justice Task Force was the creation of the Joseph Vaughn Plaza: [Quoting from the Task Force Recommendations they write] WE RECOMMEND that a statue of Joseph Vaughn be installed at the spot of the iconic photograph in which he approaches the James B. Duke Library, capturing Vaughn’s enthusiastic commitment to education. The statue should be life-size and incorporate a material that allows onlookers to see themselves in Vaughn. January 29th, the day of his enrollment (in1965), should be the date of the sculpture dedication and thereafter should be commemorated as Joseph Vaughn Day to celebrate and encourage active student engagement and challenging the status quo. The sculpture will mark the dedication of the first permanent representation of a person of color on Furman’s campus, marking a commitment towards more.I am thankful for Joseph Allen Vaughn and the barriers he broke, which allowed me to step through those same doors fifteen years later in 1980. Much had changed at Furman. My first year classmates included about 25 African Americans, 7 of them black women. I often tell the story about my roommate and I being the only Black people in our Freshman dorm. We were slowly making change, but had not yet hired the first tenure track African American professor. That would happen in 1983, with the hiring of Dr. Cherie Maiden and Dr. Saundra Audrey. Dr. Maiden retired from Furman in 2021 after 38 years of teaching French and African literature.The Joseph Vaughn Plaza and statue were unveiled in April 2021. I was not able to attend in person, but I was able to join virtually. I have never been more proud to be a Furman Paladin than on the day. There was a sense of belonging that I felt that is hard to explain. To have a memorial to someone who looks like me on a campus that I know was not originally built to include me, is quite impactful. In many ways, this statue says that I have a place at Furman. That black people and other groups that were historically excluded, have a place at Furman. Joseph Allen Vaughn was a proud Furman alumnus and as a “majority of one”, as his statue indicates, made a difference for me and so many who call Furman Alma Mater. I am one proud alumna. It is indeed great to be a Furman Paladin! I am grateful for the educational foundation created for me at Furman University. Questions for Reflection: How would you describe your own sense of belonging (at Furman)?How have you built relationships and community with people from different social identities and backgrounds?What barriers do you see (or are impacted by) that need to be removed? Thank you for your time and attention.Contributor information:A native of Darlington, SC, Dr. Idella Glenn is a Furman alumna, class of 1984/86 (BS in Computer Science/Math). Dr. Glenn returned to Furman in 1996 as Director of Multicultural Affairs, serving 18 years in various DEI roles, with the last being Assistant Vice President, Student Development & Director of Diversity and Inclusion.
Asia Garden
In 2016 The Charlotte Observer listed Furman’s Asian Garden as one of the twelve best drive-to gardens in the Carolinas. This garden is rich in symbolism that has its origin in Japanese culture, but it holds meaning universal to the human experience. Our walking tour begins at the intersection of Bell Tower Point Road and Carl Kohrt Drive, a point across the street from North Village Apartment Building F. This garden was not included in the original landscape plan for the campus. The idea was nurtured by Mrs. Beatrice (Bea) Plyler, the wife of Furman’s president Dr. John Plyer (1939-1964), as the solution to the problem of how to beautify the primary water source forming Furman’s lake. At the time of its creation Mrs. Plyler drew heavily on Japanese models, and despite its more recent renovation and renaming as the Asian Garden, the space continues to draw predominantly on its original Japanese inspiration. A Japanese garden seeks to create a balance between nature in its natural state and the carefully constructed beauty that campus planners created for what is now Furman Mall, a precisely ordered version of nature favored by European “classical” landscape garden designers of the European Baroque period – trees evenly spaced and in straight lines, pools and fountains. For a Baroque garden in miniature, a form much admired in British colonial America, please visit Furman’s rose garden between the dining hall and the student center. By design the Japanese stroll garden is a hybrid blending of the carefully shaped nature of the Furman’s front mall with the natural forest areas behind the Chapel and on the far side of the lake. At the time of its origin the area now occupied by North Village was a forest, as was the athletic field now across the road from the garden. At its inception the garden served as an idealized transition between Nature, firmly ordered by human hand (the front mall) and Nature largely undisturbed (the back campus forest).Asian gardens, particularly Japanese ones, are designed to evoke meditative experiences. They are conceived as visual aids to spiritual work. Upon one’s initial casual encounter, these gardens excite our aesthetic sense, our appreciation for the beauty and creativity of design. This is what immediately claims the attention of photographers and sketch artists. While Furman’s garden definitely fulfills this graphic expectation, for the discerning eye, the landscape invites more contemplative consideration, particularly when understood from the perspective of Japanese cultural symbolism.Within a few feet as you walk toward the Bell Tower, you will pass a cherry tree. Notice the commemorative plaque at the base of the trunk dedicated to Chigusa Tsuzuki, the matriarch of the family that donated the Place of Peace to Furman. She also donated a large number of dogwood trees to beautify Greenville when it became clear that our native dogwoods were dying. If you have the good fortune to be visiting the garden in early April you may see this tree in bloom. The cherry blossom has a special place in the Japanese lexicon of flower symbolism. Generally speaking, the beauty of most flowers is expressed in their petals. In the life-cycle of a flower, once the period of its youthful glory has passed, the petals fade and shrivel in old age, but cling tenaciously to the center. The cherry is deeply admired because its flower blooms for only a few days, and at the height of its beauty the petals release themselves from the receptacle center and in their fresh pristine beauty float carelessly on the breeze to their ultimate end. It is the symbol of a youthful life well-lived yet released in its prime without regret.Looking across the initial garden pond behind the cherry tree you will notice a small pavilion reminiscent of such structures in a tea garden. It is here that the tea ceremony host’s carefully selected guests first meet each other. It is a place where community is formed, new friends are made as they gather for a shared aesthetic experience. Step down into the garden area for a closer look at the stream flowing in front of you. Here we have another physical metaphor of our human life experience. The movement of the stream water around and over the garden rocks invites us to consider the vicissitudes of a human life – moments of calm, moments of challenge, but constantly progressing. It is here that you encounter another characteristic of Japanese stroll gardens , the audio surprise. It is meant as an aid to calm us and prepare our minds for quiet contemplation. Not easy with a busy road just a few feet away. Spend a moment listening to the deliberately designed gurgle of the water as it passes over the carefully placed stonesJapanese stroll gardens also incorporate tactile experiences. As you begin to walk along the pathway to your right, notice the feeling as you tread from one smooth flat stepping stone to another. Then compare this with walking on the pea gravel which not only has a completely different feel, but also gives a definite crunching sound. The garden designer means for you to walk on the stepping stones. The pea gravel functions something like the rumble strips on the edges of a highway to keep us from wandering off the road. Walking further down the pathway you will notice a large upright stone in the shade of a maple tree. This stone suggests several interpretations. Unquestionably the stone projects a sense of power. Looking beyond the stone across the garden you see a large stone lantern. This lantern also suggests power. It is the kind of lantern you would find in the garden of a Japanese warlord, a daimyo. Looking to your left you will see a lantern with a far less aggressive form. You are much more likely to encounter that style in a tea garden or temple yard. The upright stone and the lordly lantern along the middle length of the stream suggest the quest for influence and status commonly sought in the prime of life.The stream eventually meanders into a pool that is home to a variety of lotus plants and water lilies which you can enjoy in the late spring and early summer months. The lotus has iconic significance for several Asian spiritual traditions. It is essentially illustrating a message of hope. The lotus seed emerges out of the mud at the bottom of the pool. If the pool is one foot deep, the lotus sends up a shoot and blossoms just above the surface of the murky water. If the pool is six feet deep, the lotus sends its stem all the way to the surface to produce its beautiful flower. We all can reach “Enlightenment” or “Awakening.” Some of us have further to go than others, but we are all capable.From the lotus pond the water flows into a much larger pool. Following a strict Buddhist interpretation, this large pool would represent entering Nirvana, melding with the One. However, there are other symbols embedded in this terminal pool. Stand with the small waterfall in front of you. Across the pond you will notice a line of stones in the water. These are known as “night mooring stones” depicting boats lined up for safe keeping through an evening. The garden begins with the small pavilion for forming community. Here at the end, we are again reminded of value of community. For those who do not pass away in the beauty of youth, but whose lives flow through weeds and around rocks to conclude in old age, mooring our boats together with others is an abiding comfort. Another symbol of longevity as well as courage, perseverance, and character are the koi fish that inhabit this pond representing the final summing up of life’s journey. The various colors of koi give each a special meaning. Gold symbolizes wealth both in monetary terms and in life experience. White with red spots represents success at work. If you notice a koi with red around the mouth it represents relationships that are long-lasting.Again, moving around to your right, the garden path ends at the small bridge near the road. Standing there you are offered a glorious view of Furman’s iconic Bell Tower across the lake. Furman’s Asian Garden has invited us to consider points at which an Eastern cultural tradition can serve to enrich our intellectual and spiritual lives. The Italianate tower reminds us of one of the powerfully influential periods in Western culture – the Renaissance with its explosion of new learning and new spiritual challenges. In Furman’s libraries, laboratories, and classrooms students are encouraged to appreciate the breadth of human cultural achievements. As you have seen, Furman’s physical environment does much the same.Questions for further consideration: Where are you along the water course of life so carefully plotted in the garden? Do you share the hope for fulfillment suggested by the lotus? Have you formed a sense of community promised at the guest pavilion and fulfilled in the night mooring stones?Contributor:Dr. James B. Leavell, Herring Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies, received his BA and MA degrees from Baylor University,and his PH.D. from Duke University. Jim has traveled extensively in Asia, enjoys hiking and kayaking, and is an avid photographer.
Bell Tower
The Florentine styled bell tower was originally built in 1854 on the men’s campus in Downtown Greenville. The tower you see today was built in 1965. The famous icon seen across many marketing materials and photos, serves as a symbol of significance. Throughout its history, it signaled the start of classes, athletic wins, and Confederate victories during the Civil War. It communicated to its community.When people think of Furman University, they think of the beautiful campus and this symbolic object. For me, I can’t think of the bell tower without thinking of the Furman Lake as well. A beautiful and tranquil ecosystem where I spent time pondering what life was going to look like for me in the future. All I knew is that I too, much like the bell tower, wanted my life to be significant, to have meaning, and a purpose. Instead of having a lake in front of my path, I had a blank canvas to do and create whatever my heart desired. It was here where I decided to dive into what the Furman Advantage provided its students. I decided to take a leap of faith and study abroad. I craved experiences that were unlike anything I’d ever imagined, and it led me to have the most transformative and significant times of my life. I wanted development, exploration, and leadership. As I took my walks around the lake, I’d think about how the bell tower could withstand anything its surroundings threw at it. Hot summer months, gusty winds, and chilly winters did not seem to faze it. It still stood proud and bold. I learned to channel some of this energy through my leadership style. An ongoing passion of mine for personal development, especially around the topic of leadership, led to my involvement with the Shucker Center for Leadership Development and the Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection. There I learned, through those around me, what true leadership looks like. I learned through human connection. Empathy, compassion, resilience, and humility were also shown to me especially in times where I needed it the most. Those experiences paired with the feeling I’d get standing next to an iconic piece of history overlooking the water as if it were a blank canvas, and thinking to myself how a single water droplet could cause a ripple effect on the lake, led me to start living a life of significance and purpose. For my life and work to have meaning, people need to be at the center. Reflection: If we stop and take a moment to reflect on the environment around us we can find our “bell tower” moment that sparks inspiration within us. If we look close enough there are indicators to how we can better serve as leaders in our own lives (family, work, community, etc.). I invite you to think of a pivotal moment where you craved something more out of life. What made it significant? How did that moment empower you to be bold and proud? How did it shape your identity as a person? As a leader?Historical Reference:https://www.scpictureproject.org/greenville-county/furman-bell-tower.htmlContributor Statement:Luz Ruiz, Class of 2020, currently works as an Admissions Counselor. Her hobbies and interests include meditation, reading, motivational podcasts, and exploring the outdoors.
Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities
In 2016, I realized I needed to make a professional move. I had shifted from an academic position where I had developed a new sustainability program that utilized electronic portfolios for students to demonstrate their competencies to a position that exclusively focused on electronic portfolios across their student experiences. Lucky for me I spied the opportunity to come to Furman University and join the well-established Sustainability Science major in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences. A big factor in my decision making was how pervasive and committed Furman is to sustainability and undergraduate learning experiences. For the third move in my academic career I had little tolerance for and interest in going somewhere that was not able to match ideals with the kinds of practice I sought over the last 20 years. The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities provided the clearest, visible and tangible evidence beyond the academic major itself. The Institute provides an intellectual, practical and physical home for faculty, staff, students and community members to engage in a range of sustainability practices. Since my arrival to Furman in 2017, I have enjoyed countless gatherings with faculty across campus at the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities to discuss sustainability in a very casual and social space. It is the one space where I most frequently and intensively engage with others at Furman. It also serves as the physical location for workshops and conferences to engage faculty from other institutions who come for the intellectual engagement, but who frequently and consistently remark on the beauty and importance of the building, grounds and location to our work, but also in terms of a peaceful and thoughtful setting for mindfulness. Its location next to the lake enables a stimulating view of one of our most important global sustainability assets in terms of water. It enables easy access to the lake and to the path that circles the lake for walks during breaks. It is also surrounded by a range of botanical and animal diversity that I have utilized for my own teaching and learning, ranging from the naturalized shoreline vegetation, to the jewel of the Furman farm which provides hands-on learning experiences for students as well as food for our dining hall. Lastly, the Shi Institute borders the set of eco-cabins that provide an abode for students to live, learn and engage in mindful sustainability experiences. I am thankful for the opportunity to find such a committed and dedicated space and for such visionary leadership that established and continually supports such innovative and important work.Questions for Reflection:What are ways that you can incorporate sustainability in the ways that you eat?How does experiencing the outdoors through sun, soil, plants, and water such as presented in the Shi Institute environs affect you?Do you think sustainability is achievable and realistic, or just an idealized vision that serves as an aspirational goal?How much of your life and decision making are driven by a commitment to an alignment of your values?Contributor Statement:Geoffrey Habron serves as Professor of Sustainability Science in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Sustainability Sciences. He teaches a range of courses such as Sustainability Science, Environmental Science, Resilience and Adaptation, and Sustainability and Social Justice. He also works with communities on applied projects through the senior Sustainability Science Practicum.
Stone Bridge and creek
The stone bridge and creek at the back of the lake is one of my favorite spots on campus. Around the lake, this is the place where water has the most action. It is busy, hurried, and most determined—I have a place to go and I am going. The stone bridge, on the other hand, is not going anywhere. The trails around the lake have been cleared and paved a few times since I came to Furman. The stone bridge has never been rebuilt, at least not that I could remember. It is just there, having nowhere else to go and nothing else to be.A lovely contrast, isn’t it? I wonder how often I journey through life like water, driven by the purpose not yet fulfilled. I stride forward with might and determination, and I never look back. I wonder how often I journey through life like the stone bridge, quietly reflecting the past and witnessing the present, so as to extract wisdom and discern meaning, and then keep it all to myself.How about you? Is there a period in your life (or an aspect of your current life) where you moved like water, swiftly with determination? What is the life purpose that propels you forward? Is the purpose reachable, like a degree or a promotion? Is it an unreachable goal, one that keeps you moving, like social justice or spiritual enlightenment? Is there a period in your life (or an aspect of your current life) that you contemplate with reflective intention like the stone bridge? What is the meaning that you have extracted from the past? What are the words that are passed down from your past self to your current self?As I linger around, I see the immobility that is of the water and the movement that is of the stone bridge. The water has smoothed the rocks and nourished the vegetation. It sang with the rain and danced with the sun. It left behind lasting impacts and memorable impressions. The stone bridge has supported all sorts of actions—walking, running, cycling, jumping. How many Furman students, or Furman Presidents, has it carried and bridged?I wonder whether I am wrong thinking that the moment I leave this place, like the water, I will be forgotten, and that my silent presence, like the stone bridge, has never supported anyone to move forward with a little ease. Maybe, just maybe, like the water, I did leave behind some impacts that are not quantifiable or noticeable, but undeniable, and like the stone bridge, I did support movements that were not mine to initiate but to help accomplish. How about you? Is there anything you have done, or will do, that is invisible but essential, that is thankless, but critical? Anything that is yours to do but not yours to claim?I move on as the water keeps flowing and the stone bridge keeps contemplating, so should you. It is a lovely campus that constantly invites us to move forward toward our purpose and to reflect inward for the meaning that has been enriched through time. Questions for Reflection:Is there a period in your life (or an aspect of your current life) where you moved like water, swiftly with determination?What is the life purpose that propels you forward? Is the purpose reachable, like a degree or a promotion? Is it an unreachable goal, one that keeps you moving, like social justice or spiritual enlightenment?Is there a period in your life (or an aspect of your current life) that you contemplate with reflective intention like the stone bridge?What is the meaning that you have extracted from the past? What are the words that are passed down from your past self to your current self?Is there anything you have done, or will do, that is invisible but essential; that is thankless, but critical? Anything that is yours to do but not yours to claim?Contributor Statement: Min-Ken Liao joined Furman in 2000 and is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biology. In addition to teaching microbiology and genetics related courses and researching the anthropogenic impacts on bacterial communities in urban stream environments, she also teaches mindfulness and yoga. Left her to her own devices, she would probably be on a stone bridge all day.
Thoreau Cabin
Furman University’s Thoreau Cabin was built in 2009 by the students in an inaugural May-semester class entitled, “Replicating Walden,” led by Dr. David Bernardy in Furman’s English department.The cabin is named after Henry David Thoreau, the influential American essayist and philosopher whom most people first encounter in their high school English classes. Thoreau, born in 1817, spent most of his life in Concord, Massachusetts. After graduating from Harvard, he taught school for a short period, then worked in his family’s pencil factory.In the late 1830s, Thoreau became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and other writers who were best known for their emphasis on the roles that experience and intuition played in human understanding. These individuals, eventually known as Transcendentalists, also stressed the importance of nature and our relationship to it. Transcendentalist ideas, among other things, prompted Thoreau to live in a tiny cabin alone for two years (1845-1847) on Walden Pond in Concord. As Thoreau later wrote in his now famous book, Walden (1854), his goal was to “live deliberately” and to know life “by experience.” Thus, Thoreau sought a better understanding of himself (and what he valued) by retreating, at least temporarily, from the distractions of daily life.During his time on Walden Pond, Thoreau formulated his notion that there was a so-called higher law that people were bound to follow, even if it meant breaking man-made laws. This became known as “civil disobedience.” Only an individual’s inward journey of self-reflection could determine if such disobedience should be undertaken.Furman University’s Thoreau Cabin is located approximately the same distance from Swan Lake as Thoreau’s actual cabin was from Walden Pond. But this is not the only similarity. Furman’s educational mission, as articulated in The Furman Advantage, notes the following: Intentional acts of self-discovery lead Furman students to continually reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. They also know how to appropriately manage internal and external expectations. It’s this kind of soul-searching, life-changing work that makes them comfortable with who they are and what they want. The parallels between these outcomes and Thoreau’s experience in his cabin are clear. Thoreau embarked on a journey of self-discovery; he sought to determine a balance between what he expected from himself versus what the world expected from him; and his two-year retreat provided a greater sense of who he was and what he valued. This is also concisely summarized by the three essential questions posed by Furman’s Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection: Who am I—most authentically? What do I believe—most deeply? What does the world need—from me? As you reflect on Furman’s Thoreau Cabin, the following questions might be helpful to ponder:When you think of a retreat, what comes to mind? Is it positive, negative, or neutral? If you received permission to spend a weekend by yourself in the Thoreau Cabin, what do you think you would miss? What do you think you wouldn’t miss? Are these things connected to your values? Consider a typical day in your life. How much, if any, silence do you experience? Do you wish you had more or less silence?Contributor Statement: Dr. A. Scott Henderson is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Educationat Furman University. Before coming to Furman, he was a secondary social studies teacher. He has a Ph.D. in history, with a focus on the U.S. in the 20th century.
