Just as winter looks like it will never end, a visit to the Botanical Center conjures images of life in full bloom.
Each winter feels like an experiment in sensory deprivation: The world is still and silent. Your nose is chronically stuffed up. The only colors are brown and greyscale. You spend months smothered in layers of cotton and wool. Even your meals seem to lose their flavor.
All this changes when you step into the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center.
Notes & Miscellanea
- The Center has a shockingly active schedule: live music, book clubs, art classes, t’ai chi sessions, and lots of events for children.
- You have always appreciated the role of gardens in world religions: Eden, of course, but also Islam’s verdant vision of Heaven, known as Jannah (جَنَّةٍ), a word that literally translates as “garden.” In Hindu lore, Nandana (नान्दन) is the private domain of the powerful god Indra; similarly, the Sanskrit word reads in English as either “pleasure garden” or “paradise.”
- You were delighted to spot that gnome figurine in the tree. Your parents kept a copy of Wil Huygen’s illustrated book Gnomes on their shelf for many years, and you always got a kick out of its earnest, photorealistic artwork.
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