13 October (Part 1)

What a day. I guess the only place to begin is in the beginning. Having my only class canceled today I set out in the morning to get a whole lot done on my rock “walls.” I am really intrigued by the physicality of moving the stones. My joints and muscles ache from the abnormal stress, but each and every day gets a little bit easier, I get a little bit stronger. I finally have a visual when I talk about the “boundaries” that we construct between one another those that inhibit this idea of empathy or understanding I am trying to achieve. More and more people are crossing over these superficial boundaries, crossing over their own boundaries and fears and talking to me. Over the course of the morning I talked to two Gideons who, I would come to learn, are a group of men of many different denominations out to simply share the word of God. In my “real world” I often see men like these two holding bibles and I do my very best to not make eye contact, not give them a bit of myself so that they won’t try and push their beliefs on me. These two men were nothing like what I expected. They were very interested in my work and didn’t try and push anything on me. They just handed me the New Testament with a smile and said, enjoy!

I met a professor of Anthropology and Spanish. I met some tattoo clad cyclists who told me where to get lots of empty wine bottles for my work. And all the while, talking to these people I realized,

I would have never had the pleasure to meet them had it not been for this project. But my favorite of the day had to be Cliff. Cliff circled around my shanty at least a dozen times. He watched me work, he watched me engage with many different people, but all the while he kept a healthy distance. Finally Cliff staggered up to me, favoring what looked to be a hip that was 70 years old or more. We talked about my piece, and he told me about himself. He is from Illinois, in town with his wife to visit their daughter who went to school at Stout but now works in Eau Claire. It hurt him to tell me that his wife had gotten sick and she was at the hospital, but he had good faith that she would be just fine. She’s a tough old bird after all. Finally we got to talking about the rock walls which he was especially fond of. I told him they represent the things that hold us back from truly knowing other people. I told him that some people walk on by and never find out who I am or what this is all about. That’s when he looked up at me and with that grandfathery wink said, “Just like me! I circled around this thing for 15 minutes debating with myself whether or not I should come talk to you!” That’s when I asked him if he regretted his decision and he replied. “No way, this is great!”

Thanks Cliff.