An Exercise for Your Imagination
Imagine you have been following a path for what seems timewithout measure during a morning of swirling mists and diffusedlight when you feel the ground give softly under your leading foot.As your momentum carries you forward, wet ribbon-like strands hityour face before rubbing along either side, some few catching underyour arms and between the fingers of your hands. Surprised, youstop and try to orient yourself, failing until a moment when themists separate to reveal tall grasses before you and your pathdividing to the left and right. All signs along the way havingappeared meaningless, feeling a sense of dread and quite lost, yousee off in the distance and on both sides of the divide someoneapproaching. Each looks at you without a glance at the other,eventually coming so close as to feel their breath, and begins tospeak, their words converging in garbled nonsense until youdiscover that you can listen to one at a time. Listening to theperson on the left you hear something resembling mathematicalformulae; listening to the person on the right you hear somethingresembling a narrative tale. Neither by itself seems able to offeryou the understanding you seek, but as you listen more closely, youbegin to grasp how the narrative explains the formulae and theformulae concern the narrative…
With your head nearly spinning you begin to realize that bothroads lead to your destination.
Your Writing Assignment
Write from the perspective of the losttraveler in the imaginative exercise above.
Which way you would go: Left or Right? Explain your choice.
Who do you think the “travelers” are in relation to the Gilliganarticle: The one on the left; the one on the right; and, the oneseeking their way?
Referring directly to the Gilligan selection (using quotations),relate the imaginary scene of the above exercise to her idea of“…Two views of morality which are complementary rather thansequential or opposed” (p. 6 & 7).
