JT Chartres Labyrinth Reflection 1 and 2

The Motorcycle Diaries

“Along the roads of our daydream we reached remote countries, navigated tropical seas and traveled all through Asia. And suddenly, slipping in as if part of our fantasy, the question arose:

‘Why don’t we go to North America?’

‘North America? But how?’

‘On La Poderosa, man.’

The trip was decided just like that, and it never erred from the basic principle laid down in that moment: improvisation.” (Guevara, 33).

The creation of our scale Chartres labyrinth seemed at first like such an implausible idea, such a whimsical fantasy, that up until we made serious progress yesterday I wasn’t entirely convinced it was going to happen. Constructing a model labyrinth on school grounds seems extremely difficult on paper, similar to exploring South America on a motorcycle. What made both projects come together was the willingness to work on the fly and trust that the project will eventually happen without second-guessing. As Che states, improvisation ends up being the most powerful tool to making a large project happen without getting caught up in self doubt. This experience has helped me understand that quick planning and execution performed by Che and Alberto on their pilgrimage. The teamwork, division of labor, and group mind I experienced working to create the labyrinth has helped me understand how such an incredible journey can be undertaken by only two men. All you need is an idea and a whole lot of improvisation.

The Canterbury Tales

“Those that sleep all the night with open eyes / (So Nature incites them in their hearts), / Then folk long to go on pilgrimages, / And professional pilgrims to seek foreign shores, / To distant shrines, known in various lands; / And specially from every shire's end / Of England to Canterbury they travel, / To seek the holy blessed martyr, / Who helped them when they were sick. / It happened that in that season on one day, / In Southwark at the Tabard Inn as I lay /  Ready to go on my pilgrimage / To Canterbury with a very devout spirit, / At night had come into that hostelry / Well nine and twenty in a company / Of various sorts of people, by chance fallen / In fellowship, and they were all pilgrims, / Who intended to ride toward Canterbury.” (Chaucer 10-27).

This quotation from the Canterbury Tales illustrates one of the most rewarding aspects of my experience creating the labyrinth: getting to see a variety of people all coming together to achieve a common goal. In the Canterbury Tales, all sorts of different people coming from various backgrounds and beliefs meet up before they all begin a common pilgrimage. Each person is unique and brings something different to the table, similar to how our more-or-less random assortment of classmates came together to achieve the common goal of creating this labyrinth. When we first started this project I was worried that a few people would take control of the entire project and everyone else would get lost in the process. However, from the initial planning stages, everyone’s voice was heard during the creation of the labyrinth. A few leaders emerged for certain tasks, but no one was completely left behind. There was a multitude of tasks for everyone, from pushing the cart, to creating the dotted chalk line, to creating improvised measuring devices, to unspooling the string, and, yes, to doing the math. What was initially a daunting task became a relatively quick and rewarding one through the variety of perspectives and division of labor.