Day 10 - Back in the Box

Thank you Vincent Stemmler for photographing my piece today. Thank you also for generously bringing me something to read - I thoroughly enjoyed perusing The Artist's Body. There was much more activity on campus after the break as compared to the few days prior. I felt refreshed from my week off but was still confronted by a sense of dread at returning to this situation, which this morning was only strengthened by the fact that I hadn't slept well due to not feeling great.

It didn't take long for my back and neck to remember the past days in the box, though, and I quickly became stiff from being all hunched up again. Already, I am very sore and found myself moving around a lot to try to keep from huddling over with my neck craned forward or laying with the small of my back pressed against the hard floor. With reading material, this experience becomes much more bearable, although the eyestrain becomes even more evident after reading when going outdoors into the bright sunlight.

Despite the reading material, I must say that it was rather depressing to be caught indoors all day during such nice weather and I was reminded of time I've spent in the past working strict schedules that didn't allow me to be outdoors or dictated my actions while I was so. (In the winter, these jobs were particularly harsh since days could go by where I went to work before the sun came out to return home after it had set.)

From that standpoint, I think many of us can relate to the trapped environment in being unable to do what we want or to engage in the outdoors while sitting at a desk staring at a computer (or a cash register or whatnot). This made me really aware of how trapped all of us can be and of how much these dogs suffer just in being denied the opportunity to actually be dogs and to engage in the environment around them. It is as if they are never afforded the ability to leave their workstations or office cubicles, except that the boxes in which they are trapped are smaller and even less stimulating.