Ben's Nature Blog

 Justification: Michael Kelly  Ben Frost  Anish Doshi  Dr. Williams  4-29-26  Final Video Explanation/ Justification  The three of us spent a lot of time formulating our presentation on Before the Flood, and through analyzing the film and discussing it amongst each other and the class, our perspective on the environment and the world changed. The three of us wanted to work together for this final project because we wanted to make sure we discussed the movie in our final presentation, and specifically how impactful it was for us. Similar to the course in its entirety, this movie will leave a lasting impression on not only us, but our whole class on the importance of taking care of nature and environment now. Some of our biggest takeaways involved the peace that nature brings, and we are all thankful for the knowledge and perspective we have gained through this class regarding that subject. From reading literature, to learning about the perspectives of o...

  Today our class is using our last day to visit the Fort Worth zoo. Going to the zoo used to be something I absolutely loved when I was little. Our class field trips to the Minnesota or Como zoo were always my favorite, and whenever my family went to Omaha to visit our relatives, I would beg my parents to take us to the Omaha zoo. Now that I’m here, I am realizing that I don’t think I have been to the zoo in like 10 years (other than frog camp which didn’t really count). It has been so long since I’ve seen some of the world’s more exotic animals with my own eyes, and I had forgotten the sort of awe it can induce. Right now, I am sitting by the Bonobo enclosure writing this. I think these may be the most human-like animals I have encountered. Just as I was walking up and reading their placard, they all stormed out of the interior to gather the fruits left scattered around by the zoo’s staff. They walked around their enclosure on two feet gathering the fruits in their hands, and whe...

  I consider this to be my best photo from the semester. It was taken on March 6th while on a walk. My favorite thing about this photo is how it happened. I have never gotten to close to a deer before realizing it. I was no more than 30 feet from these two when I saw them and stopped in my tracks. I slowly pulled my phone from my pocket and took pictures. We then sat there, examining each other, neither I nor them moving a muscle for what felt like a full minute before they turned and ran off. It was a unique moment.

 

  Today I was walking on the Trinity River near the University Park Village area when a shape in the river caught my eye. At first I thought it was maybe an otter or turtle. I saw the creature's small dark head poking above the water, creating a mini wake behind it as it proceeded down the river’s edge. I walked along the path to get closer, now maybe twenty feet away, when I realized it was in fact a snake. I could now see the rest of its body slowly slithering just beneath the surface of the water. It was probably about five feet long and thicker than I would have expected. I’m no expert, but after some research I think it was probably a water moccasin snake. Naturally my eyes followed the snake's path down the river to see if it was going anywhere in particular. About fifty feet down the bank I saw two mallard ducks, and now I was really interested. It seemed like there was no way that this snake would be able to take on a whole duck, but sure enough it continued to get clos...

  In class this week we went through a handful of poems and tried to break them down as a group into “TCU speak” with the goal of understanding the language and the meaning behind it. My favorite poem that we examined was The Peace of Wild Things written by Wendell Berry.  The poem begins by detailing the narrator waking in the middle of the night, tortured by the worries of the world: “in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be”. The narrator then goes to what seems to be a lake or stream to shake off this anxiety, and feels at peace as they are surrounded by the nature around them: For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. I found the message in this poem especially interesting. I believe Berry is commenting on how we so often get tied up in the stresses of modern life that may not really be important when we take a step back. Perhaps he is also suggesting that the peace we search for through our day to day tasks in the modern world can already be...