Mazes

I’m reading The Name of the Rose, which takes place in the 14^th century at an Italian abbey that contains a library designed as a labyrinth. So I was excited to explore a garden of forking paths not far from our house, at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I had been imagining something like the maze at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna or maybe the tall hedges in The Shining, but instead found (after a very interesting walk through the arboretum’s gardens) an unthreatening mix of wooden doors, plastic tunnels, and easy exits. Julia became separated from us, as she had chosen one door while Mani and I chose another. We decided to look for the dead ends rather than the right-way-outs. Unexpectedly, we found Julia sitting in one nook of the maze, on a bench, reading a novel.