Harper's Index
1:50
Number of trees leaves in New York City that have turned colors with the season
75
Percentage of scientists who predicted that the above average temperatures leading into winter in these later months will be the cause of the imminent death of Fall
31,959
Number of documented deaths caused by falling in 2015
2015
The year my generation was tagged as the generation that will reject falling in love
30 to 90
The percentage increase that within 3 months of a loved ones death their partner will follow
60
The age my grandfather was when he passed away in the house I would be raised in
143
The number address of the house I was raised in
143
The universal number symbolizing the phrase: “I LOVE YOU”
June 10, 2016
The date on which the last words I said to my grandmother were “I love you” but she didn't have the strength to say anything back
infinite
The things I would give up to be able to collect Fall leaves with her and bask in the glory that is the Fall one more time
10
Number of photo albums from my childhood that I lugged across the country so their very thingness could collect dust in a new place
3
Number of beautifully pressed and dried out orange and red leaves I found flipping through the stiff pages of an album
15 minutes
Time spent staring out my window longing for this distant place, time, and exchange of love back, and the green leaves to find it within them to appease my longing
7
Number of people I have spoken to today about the trees who are also informed about the scientists predictions and have also noticed this apparent change in weather patterns
72 degrees and sunny
the temperature and weather today on November 3, 2016
0
Number of people I have interacted with since moving here who find the leaves changing and Falls transition to be as poetic and symbolic as I have observed I do
Hours and Hours
Time I’ve spent the past few months reading poetry and literature as a great attempt to escape, relive, and explain life, pain, and suffering
5 months
Time it took me to fully understand how I as an individual cope with death whether it be physical or now environmental
5 of my friends
lost their lives to a car accident on Monday October 24th, 2016 and I see myself being thrown back into the crisis of my own uncertainty and how we come to understand death.
2016
The year I learn the most about myself, nature, and the inevitable uncertainties of the world
What has been achieved in this piece that makes it unique to other personal stories or narratives? The meditative process of telling ones story in different forms and making it digestible opens up a space for comprehensive listening.This form being the Harpers Index highlights the seemingly insignificant or significant links words can share with numbers. A new form of story telling emphasizing an overlooked facet, such as numbers. Drawing connections to the fluidity of life moving through time sheds a new light on the subtle significances of events. Adaptations such as the Harpers Index is a good place to start to put to work the notions of reconfiguration we often discussed throughout the course of Creative Nonfiction.
Lived experience and fact. Statistics and numbers. Places we can begin to create spaces for digestible reconfiguration. The sort of mundane antagonisms of our own inner workings and the conditions in which we exist need an outlet and the approaches we take to be accountable for them raises a consciousness of the self but more importantly those we are in relation to. That is why I saw this class and now the culmination of this book to be so essential in the synthesis of our learning. Displaying the diversity of thoughts we all hold from the transformational events that took place over the course of this semester is so important in understanding the different ways frameworks and genres can be utilized.
After the results of this election, after experiencing death, after reading a transformational text, the affects are felt and they weigh down upon our shoulders. The archival process of Harpers index granted me a space to express those feelings but also challenge myself to see connections in things such as numbers, a place I had to reluctantly look into myself to find. Facing challenges such as my distain for numbers in this medium lead me to the realization of defamiliarization. Defamilizarition aids in returning us to the fullness of the experiences of life, to transforming us into foreigners, novices, and is a way of saving us from the habitual, and specifically from habitual perception.
That being said the ways in which we tell stories and hear stories have become habit based on the fact that the news narratives are seemingly from one point of view and that is the dominant or ruling class. Can we effectively shift that by moving the apparatus to encompass new perspectives? I feel like this was largely what our class attempted to grapple with, and this collection, as well as the above displayed work I subsequently created out of this course, has allowed me to expand the understanding of my own world and the way I tell it, but almost more importantly the way in which I carefully listen to those around me.