Several folks asked me for more info on the Message from the Earth living art installation in the Mann Library lobby back for the holidays. If that’s you, see this Cornell Chronicle article I wrote.
I got this message from Christine, a co-worker who spearheaded this project. (On the left in the picture with Marcia Eames-Sheavly and Howard Raskin from Mann Library.)
On a side note, it was interesting to see peoples reactions today as we took it all down. One woman asked me with great concern in her voice “What are you going to do with Gandhi now?”. I replied that we were going to compost him! She definitely wasn’t satisfied with that answer, protesting that we must help him to continue to stay alive. She offered her own grow lights from home, saying that we should put him outside, give him more light and water, and try to revive him. I gently told her that it was too late, that his roots were already dead. And then reminded her that composting him is very much in line with his teachings of the earth as a cycle, what comes from the earth, goes back to the earth…. At last, she seemed satisfied with that understanding!
I love how people developed such a connection with this….
