Items

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  2020-04-17

  Tree Limb Arch, Cumberland Park, Cleveland Heights, OH

  Within a few days after Gov. DeWine started Ohio's "shelter in place" order, a small arch made of tree limbs appeared in Cumberland Park along Cumberland Road. On a more recent walk, I found that someone had rebuilt the arch on a larger scale. It's interesting to watch for signs of how people do various things to fight boredom.
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  2020-04-17

  Tree Limb Peace Sign

  This is the reverse side of the post next to a giant peace sign fashioned out of tree limbs. The post reads "Be kind to each other. #ClevelandHeightsPeaceSign"
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  2020-04-17

  Tree Limb Peace Sign

  This post describes an activity related to the peace sign behind it. The post reads "Peace. Please take a power stick. Place it in your yard to remind you of [peace sign] and allow the birds to pick the yarn for their nests." To my mind, this community project shows the need to take actions to combat a sense of futility. Parks are more important than ever in this time when walking outside is one of the only safe ways to be outdoors. It's nice to see the community making an intentional, active use of this park.
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  2020-04-17

  Tree Limb Peace Sign

  Regular walks have taken on new importance for me amid the stress-inducing experience of living in a time of uncertainty. Watching the incremental emergence of spring has been more than a little therapeutic. On April 11, on a walk through Cumberland Park, I noticed that someone had arranged tree limbs into a giant peace sign in a former picnic area. Six days later, I passed by the same spot. Many sticks wrapped in various colors of yarn now lay in the middle of the peace sign, along with a post that explained the purpose of the sticks, inviting people to take a stick home so that birds could pick the yarn for their nests. I like how the community is appropriating spaces in the park to take small actions to restore a sense of agency, however small.
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  2020-04-07

  Cleveland Rocks

  On a neighborhood walk, our family counted sixteen rocks along two blocks of Edgehill Road painted with positive messages related to the pandemic. Similar rocks have appeared in other communities around the nation, a result of a desire to find new ways to occupy time spent sheltering at home. They offer opportunities either for scavenger hunts and certainly brighten the spirits of passersby. Like the rock pictured here, most of the rocks we saw were propped against tree trunks in what Clevelanders call "tree lawns" (sidewalk strips). After seeing the rocks, our daughter felt inspired, so when we got home we found some rocks, gathered her art supplies, and sat on our front porch to paint some rocks of our own.