From Aron’s Desk

Friends, 

This is the week of Veteran’s Day, and each year at Rosalind Franklin University we have a celebration of our veterans and active-duty service members among our students, staff, faculty, and alumni. The celebration is a chance to thank the people who have protected us over the centuries and continue to do so. Each year it is a lovely event led by our veterans employee resource group chaired by Gordon Blanchard, a U.S. Army veteran and our campus security lead. Our speaker this year was Jeremy Couch, who is the operations manager of Growing Healthy Veterans, our partner for the Healing Gardens at our clinics. 

It’s no secret to folks at RFU that I like gardening and growing plants. This fall, I have 30 oak seedlings under lights in my office from sprouting acorns I collected in October on the path to the Woodlands. They’ve sprouted into a spunky lot, and I have no idea how they will fare under lights over the winter and then through next summer without a shot at dormancy. That is a long growing season for seedlings. I planted five other acorns in the courtyard outside my office, and, as you would expect, they are all about their root formation and none of them have sprouted leaves. My courtyard plantings are a bit of guerrilla gardening, so do not tell Bob Jackson, our facilities lead. More seriously, Bob has a plan for diversifying our campus forest that I saw last week. We will be adding additional native trees, including more oaks, and increasing our campus diversity, which is a good thing. 

I like gardening because I enjoy the plants, Fibonacci (part 2 and part 3), and getting my hands in dirt. I am not so into harvesting or garden design, although like Lizzy Bennet, I do like an unpretentious, naturalistic garden. To wit, Alice will tell you, I am not so big on weeding. We each have our strengths.

For many of us, gardening helps our brains, and I have an undereducated theory about that. The sensory homunculus, the map of sensory function in the brain, has huge hands, which means we have a lot of brain dedicated to our hands. (The lips are big, too.) It’s my experience that working with my hands feels good and quiets my brain in a useful way. The latter is true, I do feel good when I am working with my hands; the homunculus part is a just-so-story to explain my experience. Regardless, I am not alone. Many people find hand work comforting, peacemaking, and sanative. Which leads me back to our Healing Gardens, Jeremy Couch, and Growing Healthy Veterans (GHV). 

We have developed a partnership with Growing Healthy Veterans president, Ellen Ewing, and their programs to help veterans through gardening and community engagement. Gardening helps create community in a healthy way for the veteran gardeners and is productive in produce for the community. Mr. Couch is a veteran of the Navy Seabees, so I know he knows how to build something. He spoke eloquently about how gardening supports the health and wellness of veterans, and why supporting the community through food production is service with which we can all engage. He manages the GHV gardens at RFU, and he left my office with an oak seedling. We have partnered with GHV on our clinic’s Healing Garden and this spring we plan to expand the program with a large, state-supported hoop house. Alice will be sending me over to do volunteer gardening. 

Improving the wellness of all people with you, 

Aron