WW Photo Challenge: Broken Knowledge

B is for Broken

Today’s photo challenge is brought to you by the letter B. I present to you three statues from the University of Rochester campus. Though they do look a little creepy, as you’d expect for Friday the 13th, that’s not why I picked them for today. Each statue represented one area of knowledge, such as Science, Astronomy, and Navigation. There were originally six of them, but only four still stand on the campus, and only three are in this photo (if you’re curious, you can learn more about their history here). As you can see, the years have not been kind to them, and I picked this image to represent the concept broken. Though we could take this as a metaphor for the sad state of knowledge in this degenerate age, that’s not what I see. To me, they show that knowledge can’t be fossilized into fixed, unchangeable structures. it must grow and change, or it will break down and die.

You’re invited to join in! Pick any photo you took you can label with the letter B.  Show us a baked potato, a view of the Berkshires, a balloon–whatever strikes your fancy!  Here’s how to participate.

• Post an image on your own blog or website.* All types of photos are welcome. If you have serious equipment and serious skills, that’s awesome! If you snap pics on your phone (like me), that’s also awesome!
• Post a comment on this page with a link back to your post.  Note that this is DIFFERENT from what I suggested last time, because I’ve been informed I was doing it wrong. If you post a comment that includes a link to your blog, I will add a link to your post below.
• Check back over the next week to follow the links. That way you can see what other people did with the theme and join in the fun.

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Olga Godim shared a book cover she designed with Butterflies. You can see this lovely image here.

*Just so we’re all clear, you post your photos on your own site, which means you aren’t giving control to me or to anyone else. We’re all invited to view the images you post (and comment if your site allows for comments), but nobody has the right to use your images in any way without your permission. Got it? Great!

Rush Rhees Library: University of Rochester

Yesterday I had occasion to return to my alma mater, the University of Rochester, for a presentation on the nature of memory consolidation and reconsolidation. The talk was fascinating, but not the focus of this post. I took advantage of the day to take some photos of the campus, which has changed a lot since I attended there. This facade, though, is just the same.

The Rush Rhees Library is the anchor for the main quadrangle at the University’s River campus and the academic heart of the school. This building was built in 1930, and although it has been expanded several times and is fully updated internally, this view hasn’t changed since then. The library is a wonderful example of how tradition and innovation are blended at the U of R.

What you can’t read in this photo are two inscriptions carved into the stone on either side of the doors, behind the stone urns.

HERE IS THE HISTORY
OF HUMAN IGNORANCE
ERROR SUPERSTITION
FOLLY WAR AND WASTE
RECORDED BY HUMAN
INTELLIGENCE FOR THE
ADMONITION OF WISER
AGES STILL TO COME

HERE IS THE HISTORY
OF MANS HUNGER FOR
TRUTH GOODNESS AND
BEAUTY LEADING HIM
SLOWLY ON THROUGH
FLESH TO SPIRIT FROM
BONDAGE TO FREEDOM
FROM WAR TO PEACE

As a shiny new freshman in the 1970s, I found those words deeply inspiring. They still move me today. They embody the spirit of education, writ large: remembering, understanding, and learning from the mistakes of the past, and using them to climb, slowly and sometimes painfully, into a better future. There is a clear-eyed and honest view of how many things we get wrong and how hard it will be to get it all right. There is also a determination that this journey is worth the effort. I also got a sense that I, one scholar just starting on this journey, could be a small part of this mighty task.

I credit my education at the University of Rochester with giving me a firm grounding in scholarly inquiry and setting me off on a life of learning and teaching. It awakened me to a life of the mind that I cherish.

Posted in response to the WordPress photo challenge: Awakening