John B. Denton's Grave

Jami McQueen
History Major - University of North Texas

Day 1: October 7, 2013

I chose the space to create my mandala carefully. I wanted to move away from campus life, and instead took my search to the Denton Square. The spot I decided on is the area around John B. Denton’s grave near the Courthouse. This area included the grave itself, the surrounding monkey grass, a tree, and a small area under said tree that held some grass, and a patch of dirt. The first thing I noticed at this mandala is that there was evidence of humans everywhere. The grave itself, of course, was human-made, with its wrought iron fencing surrounding the concrete that covered the body. Snuggly up against the tree there was a metal pole, which, under further investigation, held the fuse box for the Christmas lights that were wrapped around the trunk and branches of the tree. Traffic was fierce that day on the square, and honks and general car noises polluted the air. Also in the air was the sound of children laughing and families chilling on the grass around the Courthouse, taking advantage of the beautiful day. Musicians played nearby, both across the street near business-door fronts as a man played guitar softly on the bench 10 yards away. And, as with all contact with humanity, there was the inevitable litter, like a small piece of Styrofoam, a crushed plastic serving cup near the grave, and dirty cigarette butts from previous occupants. But no worries―nature’s presence was not lost in the space. Birds had left evidence of their occupation in the tress above in the form of small white feathers caught in the grass. Ants, few at first, and then more, began to emerge from the dry, cracked dirt to search for food. And a cricket also popped out next to my foot to see what was going on.

Day 2: October 9, 2013

Not much has changed today from my first observation. I came around 2 PM today, and the people traffic on the square is fairly minimal. A few college age kids strolled around the courthouse, but there were no musicians near the mandala, and everything was fairly peaceful. Not as many ants were out today, though occasionally one did pop out of the dirt to climb a blade of grass. There are many more sticks on the ground today, evidence that last night was fairly windy, enough to break branches and pull off loose bark (or was it a creature who caused such damage?). There is no sign of the cricket, and I do not know if it has become a victim of something in nature, or if it has simply moved on to another location. I notice that “nature” has begun to take over some of the human-made features of the mandala. Through the concrete that covers Denton’s grave, a small “tree” has begun to grow through a crack in the concrete. It stands about 6 inches high, and seems fairly healthy. It is not yet big enough to cause any damage to the grave, but I fear the groundskeepers may have no choice but to pull it when it begins to get too big. Another example of nature winning out is the Christmas lights on the tree. When I was looking to see if there were any bugs on said tree, I noticed that on the lowest strand, a light bulb was missing. All the rest of the lights were fine, so I wonder if an animal (perhaps a squirrel) had gotten to this one. I know I read several years back that they were having trouble with the squirrels eating the bulbs.

Day 3: October 11, 2013

Today I visited the mandala a little later, this time around 5:30 PM. Things were much quieter around the square in general. There was still traffic noise pollution, but on a much smaller scale, and there was only one other person on this side of the square that I could see, and he was sitting 20 yards away on a bench, reading a book. There were no musicians on the square at this point, so mostly the air was filled with cars and nature noises. The Styrofoam piece was still there, in exactly the same spot as before, only maybe slightly dirtier, as was the crushed plastic serving cup. It’s possible there were more cigarette butts on the ground today, but it is hard to be sure. There is now an addition of a clear plastic bottle cap from a water bottle that is inside the fencing of the grave. Nature was slightly more prominent today, as I could hear birds chirping from up in the trees and there were more ants out and about. There are apparently 2 different types of ants living under the ground in the mandala, as the first ones I saw crawling around were small and red (though not fire ant red and small), and a few minutes later, another ant crawled on my foot, and it was slightly bigger and more of a brown-orange color. They were also on the tree today, forming a line from a hole in the tree and marching all the way down.

Day 4: October 12, 2012

Due to the brief rain, the mandala was a different place than it had been the day before. The dirt was no longer dry; instead it was rather muddy, and there was no sight of any bugs at this point (I went right after the rain had passed, so they may have still been in their shelter). There were a few birds who had begun to come out, and their chirping could be heard clearly. The car and foot traffic on the Square was much slower than the other days I had gone to the mandala, so the atmosphere was slightly calmer. More branches were on the ground, probably due to the rain falling through the trees, but very little else was disturbed, surprisingly. There were still the same old feathers caught in the grass, and the usual trash was still there. I did find a leaf on the ground near where I was sitting that was riddled with holes, making me think of a caterpillar. Another small tree has popped through the concrete of the grave, so I imagine it won’t be much longer before humans have to reclaim the grave from nature’s grip. I can tell that the mandala had been at least breeched in the past 24 hours, because a small pile of dirt that had been undisturbed previously now was flattened, as if someone had run over it with a bike or wagon wheel.

Day 5: October 13, 2013

Similar to yesterday’s observations, the rain had disturbed the mandala, but only slightly. The Styrofoam piece is gone, possibly due to the winds caused by the front moving through. More small twigs and pieces of bark were on the ground, and there were a few ants crawling over them on a path heading back into the cracked earth (it seemed to be an easier path than having to wade through grass to get there). Some people are out and about, but I think the majority of the population may be watching football games instead of enjoying nature. There were no ants on the tree today, maybe due to the wetness of the bark, or maybe because they had already gathered their food for the day. Or maybe they just found a different route to follow today, since their smell trail had probably been washed away by the rain. It doesn’t seem like there is any more trash on the site today.

Turner and Berkes (2006:498) define ecological knowledge as “a cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission.” When I read this definition of ecological understanding, what I take away from it is this: that the best knowledge that can be gained from observing nature in any form, whether that be hiking on a nature trail, setting up a mandala to observe, or just sitting on your porch swing while enjoying the pretty weather, is the knowledge that humans and nature can coexist peacefully, if we are willing to do our part. Observing nature, taking in its beauty, allows us to understand it better than we can imagine when we are passing it by due to our busy lifestyles. Once one studies nature―and I mean really study it- taking the time to just take it all in and realize everything at play in the ecosystem, and how it all interconnects―the things that we do that we don’t really think about become glaringly obvious and may become horrifying. For example, from observing the mandala this last week, it kills me to think of people who just leave their litter around. Yes, it may only be a piece of Styrofoam, but as I saw this week, that Styrofoam doesn’t break down (at least not fast or easily), and that disturbs the balance of that ecosystem. And the cigarette butts are what really get to me. First of all, you never should leave cigarette butts in the grass- that’s just not safe. But also, that nicotine then seeps into the soil, and those chemicals are now affecting all of those insects who live there, and there is no telling what havoc it is wreaking on them. But at the same time, Haskell does have a point, which he pointed in one of the previous entries in his book (the one with the golf balls). We can’t always keep human-made things contained; it just is not a realistic expectation. But as he states in that entry―just because it is human-made doesn’t mean that it is bad. What we have to do instead is to find a balance that allows us all (humans and nature alike) to coexist peacefully, with as minimal damage as possible to both parties. I think that is the main take away from Turner and Berkes and Haskell. If we all just take the time to acknowledge the rest of the world around us, not just what is right in front of our face, then we could make the world a better place for all living things.

References
Haskell, David George. 2013. A Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature. Penguin Books.

Turner, Nancy J. and Fikret Berkes. 2006. Coming to Understanding: Developing Conservation through Incremental Learning in the Pacific Northwest. In Human Ecology, 34(4):495-513.