gradient greens

 I took a walk along University across campus today (something I rarely do because both my home and the buildings I have classes in are South of campus), and it turned out to be quite retrospective.

First, we have an immense amount of trees on our campus. In my line of sight I could see upwards of thirty trees, all different kinds, scattered around campus with sidewalks and gravel paths and the concrete of the road intertwining in and out. It made me wonder--were these here before TCU, or were they planted to make our campus more environmentally friendly in an attempt to persuade more students to come? A beautiful campus is a large factor in college admissions, and greenery is a large factor of beauty. We appreciate New York City for its pockets of green, for Central Park. We appreciate Austin for Barton Springs, we appreciate Dallas for White Rock Lake and its surrounding parks. Or, is that just me? Greenery is welcoming and makes a place feel homey--perhaps that is why I have so many houseplants. Being partitioned into a concrete oasis is not preferable, and at times, scary, because it reminds me of how much of our earth we have lost. 

I was having a conversation a couple weeks ago about how America as a country is plain and boring and has no natural beauty, and how much I wished I lived somewhere where the people appreciated the land they lived on. Somewhere like Switzerland, I guess, I said to my partner. He reminded me that America has one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world--after all, we do have one of the Seven Wonders. My argument was suburbs. And I think I have a point. As Americans, I think a lot of the time we disregard the beauty of our country for what it has turned into--highways and concrete jungles and lines and rows and grids of houses that all look the exact same, covering up the ground and the grass and the trees and the flowers. It's important for me to remember to look at the sky and the trees and natural bodies of water and loving them for what they are. I think the song "America the Beautiful" has been discounted over the years, but admiring the lyrics "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain" reminds us of our diverse and plentiful landscape. The grass is never greener on the other side; we are just not looking at our own environment with the right eyes.