From the cemetery we headed down town, now all of us completely soaked and freezing. Getting off the bus the first thing we saw getting off the bus in Centennial Park was the statue pictured below, it depicts a scene where Ford, Edison, and Firestone are sitting around a fire commercing.
I really enjoyed being able to get out and see first hand the history or our local area. We were shown the old post office, the old theatre, and a historical courtyard. It was amazing to me how some of these buildings were still able to remain and keep up with the times. South West Florida is a rapidly growing and evolving economy, buildings come and go, businesses come and go, walking through down town Fort Myers and seeing buildings that have been there for 10's of years and are still operating to me is very cool.
I liked that in the field trip we hit the streets we got out and walked the roads, as the professors were talking and telling us about all the historical buildings I couldn't help but imagine myself back in those days running around in their daily life. I thought of what things must have been like back in those days, I imagine slower more time for the family, less time worrying about material possessions. I also recall thinking to myself how much smaller and condensed the town must have been back when it was first getting started, and how much it has probably grown. With the growth comes the disconnect from your neighbors and you start to drift away from community involvement because you lose your sense of a community as everyone spreads out over there area.
We see that a lot now a days in Urban areas, and even when people are jammed in close to together like big cities they are too busy worrying about their daily life, making money, buying expensive cars, keeping up with the Kardashians, all of this on top of the growth of our cities is causing us present day to lose our sense of community and disconnect with each other. I see a solution though, something that I have been harping on this entire blog. I complain and moan about being rushed through field trips and feed massive amounts of information, I felt anxious on field trips desperately trying to absorb every last thing that came out of my professors mouth. This anxiety I see follows us around day in day out, it has gotten so bad that people now rush even when they have no where to go. Nature is the key, if everyone could just slow down and take a breathe we might be able to re connect.
Nature is one place you can go to escape the hustle and bustle, if we can allows ourselves to relax and slow down then maybe our communities can move away from the go go go life style and more of a slow pace where economic growth doesn't control our minds.
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