August 2020 - Arnold Arboretum - Title: Eden

By August I had decided I would no longer include figures in my images, that I needed to go back to nature on its own. I did not want to document the pandemic. I wanted to forget the pandemic. If there were to be more sprites I needed to find tiny ones deep in the forest.

But the Arboretum was a park and there were people. And there should be. But I made an effort to leave the paths and carefully move through the underbrush. I was looking for Eden if only in my mind. And so on my visits I put blinders on and returned to my initial vision of the Arboretum as a tree museum with living specimens. Each had a personality and an individual footprint. Each was documented, cared for, and preserved for us to discover.

Lack of visitor distancing was a problem and the Arboretum staff didn't have personnel to enforce it. One minute I would be walking gazing at the plantings when all of a sudden a group of runners would weave around me at very close proximity all breathing strongly with mouths wide open. Yikes.

There were bicycle riders, runners, and families who refused to wear masks or distance themselves and I witnessed yelling and threatening behaviors between visitors. The Arboretum Director was determined to stay open.

I became focused on a personal effort to encourage safety by writing emails and making phone calls, contacting the press and city officials. I used a classic triangulation approach with the City of Boston that an old rabble-rouser friend always talked to me about in his strategies. Maybe I made some impact, and this surprised me as I had never before participated in social action. Later that Summer I applied the same methods in my home town and I was successful, particularly because it was a smaller pond.