Mirror Mirror…

(Disclaimer: I’m tired, I want to go home, I found a yellow jacket nest attached to the building I sleep in a few days ago, and my work ethic up and left a week ago. So, please forgive me if I am in less than ideal writing frame of mind and thus write somewhat less than usual.)

After our spring break trip to New Orleans, each Bonner was supposed to write a reflection about the trip. My reflection was to tell a story about one of the people whose house we had worked on. I got an email a few days latter telling me I hadn’t written a “reflection” but had instead produced a “recollection.”

My mistake was in thinking that relating a thought provoking experience could be considered a reflection in and of itself. Although part of me wants to say that telling the story should provoke reflection on the part of the reader, I understand that Bonner wants me to take a step back and do some thinking about my experiences. The complication, however, comes in the fact that some experiences are easier to reflect about than others. For example, the man in New Orleans who had had his windows boarded up with a nail gun is easier to reflect on than seemingly endless hours of weed eating. Even more complicating is the fact that I tend to reflect on things that I think about, and weed eating and putting out coffee grounds and puttying windows and most of the other work I do here puts me into at kind of Zen state (which leads to a whole other set of interesting questions, is not thinking spiritually beneficial if you’re not thinking about not thinking?).

So, to answer Jessica’s question in response to my first blog post, I think it may be possible to reflect on demand, but it would require more attention than I’ve been paying, or having a different set of exciting circumstances. Finding yellow jacket nests is exciting and memorable, but doesn’t lend itself to reflection.