The Circles of Life, Labyrinths and Lego

In seeking to utilize my membership at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden, a Christmas gift from my sister (thanks Deda!), I discovered this week that there would be a - gasp! - Lego exhibit there all summer, called Sean Kenney’s Nature POP! Made with LEGO® Bricks. Combining things I enjoy - in this case, walking in nature, and Lego art - always seems to be an exponentially exciting endeavor to me. So even though I had  already made plans to go see it with a friend next month, I couldn't wait to go myself, on my first day off. 

While I am often very much a planner in almost all aspects of life, I enjoy both the challenge of spontaneity and the relief of not having to plan certain parts of my life. So I awoke without an alarm and got ready to go to the gardens. I noted that there was a QR code which would likely have more information and a map and the like, but ignored the impulse to check it out. Instead, once I showed my membership ID, I put my headphones in and headed out aimlessly, with the intent to discover as many of the exhibits as I could without the aide of a map.

The first few exhibits were right through the doors. Actually, there were two exhibits just outside the entrance before you even pay admission, as well as a few murals in the Pollinator Pathway near the parking lot, which I discovered at the end of my journey. But besides those, once you're past the admission desk and through the doors, there are several bunnies, a couple gardeners and a dog. I took some photos and ventured on. 

I spotted a red blur in flight, and when it stopped in the tree, I stopped to snap a few photos of the cute little bird. The lighting was poor but I was able to enhance it on my phone. I moved on and continued to discover additional statues and murals built of Lego. 

One thing I really loved and appreciated was that the signs had a little blurb about the art and a little blurb about the science. This makes it a memorable and fun learning experience, I suspect, for kids and adults alike even. 

I made my way to the Rose Garden and found a dazzling sculpture there of a rose, fitting. As I carved my way through the curvy paths, I was reminded of my labyrinth experience and reflected on the ever so slight distracting annoyance of having to make decisions about which way to go every few feet. What I loved about the labyrinth was that it made all the decisions for you, you had but to choose to walk it, and the path took care of the rest. That's what promoted the meditative experience I had while walking the labyrinth, albeit too short of lengths for my preference. A trade off, I presume, between the length stretches I could walk here in the Rose Garden versus a labyrinth. If only we could combine the two - having a single path over a larger scale. That's Ikea, I suppose. 

Not knowing where I would find the next exhibit, I ventured into the Japanese Garden and walked a majority of its length, finding no Lego exhibits there. I would later confirm with the map that the Japanese Garden was, indeed, left alone, without a single Lego piece, and just the tranquil peace. 

Outside of the Japanese Garden, I spotted a *POP* of color which I took to be my next lead. I found more sculptures and enjoyed reading the plaques in front of each. 

After more than 2 miles of walking, I decided to start making my way back to the car, when I spotted a red tailed hawk wrangling a recent kill. It spotted me before I saw it, and raised its wing to protect its hunting trophy from me. I think this is one of the funniest behaviors of the animal kingdom. I was reminded of the time a turkey vulture danced around its catch with both wings extended while I walked widely around it to retrieve my car from the street shortly after I moved into my house in Texas. If only the birds of prey knew I have a much better meal awaiting me at home, and that their breakfast was not tempting to me in the least! After photographing it from the distance at which I stopped, it eventually was startled away by unaware kids coming up the path the other way. I tried to follow it to see where it would land in the tree, but it was too fast for me to track it. 

After a quick stop at the restroom and gift shop, I headed out to my car, clocking more pops of color in the Pollinator Pathway, as previously mentioned. So I wandered down that path which I usually skip, and found a few more murals that were totally worth seeing. 

Finally, at my car, I pulled up the website from the QR code and checked the map. Verifying the list against my memory, I was happy to see I had found all but one of the exhibits on my own. I chuckled at myself thinking that I was too close to stop now; like Pokemon, I gotta catch 'em all! The last one was not in the gardens proper; it was by the research institute, to which I know of no (other) reason to go. So I drove over to the entrance and popped out of my car for a quick photo. So lesson learned: if you're missing one (the zebra mural), do not remorse, it is easily accessible by car on your way out of the parking area. 

After returning home, I did some organizing of my photos and did some searches online to get more information and data for this post. Interestingly (or annoyingly), some of the articles about the exhibit coming to Fort Worth either reference or feature a panther, which was neither on the map nor in my photos or memory. I was incredibly frustrated to learn that I had missed one, and puzzled why it wasn't on the map. After considerable deliberation, I figured out that the "panther" referenced is actually the snow leopard, so I wasn't missing one after all. 

About Nature POP!

The exhibit runs from May 22 to September 17, so you have plenty of time to *POP* out to the gardens to see it! This marks artist Sean Kenney's second major showcase at the venue, arriving five years after his "Nature Connects" exhibition occupied the grounds. 

By the Numbers 

There are 18 three dimensional sculptures and 6 large, flat murals. The murals are all the same size and according to the signs, are all composed of the same number of pieces -  18,432 each! This may seem expected at first, but actually, the pieces used on the murals are all different shapes and sizes, so one realistically could expect there would be variation in the brick count. I used my favorite AI chatbot to validate the underlying assumptions in those counts, and provide its own estimates based on my photos. The count was estimated to be much lower. 

The sign for the rabbits indicated they were 1,496 pieces, but it was unclear if that was per bunny or for the collection. With 21 bunnies, if the figure was for all of them, that would be an average of 71 pieces per bunny - seems low. If its per bunny, then all the rabbits would be 31,416 pieces all together, so I think it's that. 

I didn't catch the number of pieces for three of the statues (at least one of which did not have a sign from what I could find), and used google search and AI to try to ascertain those estimates, but did not trust the numbers, so I used my own estimates for those three. 

Update June 26, 2026: I went back to the gardens and revisited the statues I had been missing piece counts for, so now I have a complete count (at least, according to the signs). 

Based on the pieces stated, and my assumption about the rabbits, I calculated 869,074 Lego pieces, which confirms the claim that there are over 800,000 pieces used in the total exhibit. At an average retail price of $0.13, that would be nearly $113k worth of Lego! Although, the artist likely got a wholesale price closer to 6 cents per brick, or about $52k. 

Even if the number of pieces is overestimated for the murals, using the high end of the AI-generated estimates, the entire collection was estimated at 811,982 pieces, still well above the claimed 800,000 pieces. 

The Next Stops: Cities Scheduled After Fort Worth

This is the 14th stop on the tour. After September 17th, once the installations are carefully disassembled, packed into customized, foam-lined logistics crates, and loaded onto freight trucks at the end of the summer, they are booked to head to the following locations:

    Omaha, NE (Scheduled to open January 16, 2027)
    Winchester, VA (Scheduled to open May 27, 2028)

Custom Resources

If you want to have a little fun, try either the Scavenger Hunt or Quiz I've created, here: 

To provide you with the most efficient route to visit all of the Nature Pop! displays, I have charted a course on the map that minimizes backtracking. We have created a blue path that visits the sculptures in a clear, continuous sequence. You can see the visual path overlaid on the map, and here is the breakdown:

Efficient Nature Pop! Walking Route:

Start at the BRIT to see the Zebra Mural, or the Pollinator Pathway near the park lot. 
#3 Ladybug Mural - Pollinator Pathway
#2 Butterfly Mural - Pollinator Pathway
#6 Horses Mural
#1 Galapagos Tortoise - You'll likely see this as you drive in. Watch for cars if you approach on foot to take a picture. 

#5 Eagle - You'll see this on your left as you walk into the Garden Center.
#8 Gardeners - Veer left as you enter the garden, and appropriately, visit the statue of the gardeners! 
#9 Rabbits - Count them and see how many you can find!
#10 Dog

#11 Leopard
#12 Pangolin
#13 Polar Bear & Cub

#7 Tree Frog Mural - I think this is in the wrong spot on the map, as I spotted it after the Polar Bear and before the Woodpecker. 

#14 Woodpecker
#15 Doe & Fawn
#16 Buck
#17 Fox
#18 Lawn Mower

Hang a right after the Lawn Mower
#23 Spider Mural
#22 Zebra
#21 Lion
#20 Dodo Bird

Enter the Rose Garden
#19 Rose - North West part of the Rose Garden
#24 Dragonfly - Exit the Rose Garden on the South East side and head towards the pond. It's a bit out of the way, but worthwhile as it is one of my favorites! 

#4 Zebra Mural - Near BRIT (Botanical Research Institute of Texas). Recommend driving here at the beginning or end of your day. 

This route allows you to see every sculpture in one continuous walk through the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

And here is my table of the piece count.

Sculptures	Claimed Piece Count	Notes
1. Galapagos Tortoise	21,976
5. Eagle	22,200
8. Gardeners	46,823
9. Rabbits	31,416	*Assumes 21 rabbits at 1,496 each as the signs imply
10. Dog	39,800
11. Snow Leopard	51,377
12. Pangolin	28,650
13. Polar Bear with Cubs	112,450
14. Woodpecker	32,650
15. Fawn & Doe	43,150
16. Buck	38,350
17. Fox	18,100
18. Lawn Mower	35,250
19. Rose	20,000
20. Dodo Bird	29,750
21. Lion	45,150
22. Zebra	73,500
24. Dragonfly	67,890
Subtotal in Sculptures:	758,482

Murals	Claimed Piece Count	AI Estimate
2. Butterfly	18,432	5,500
3. Lady Bug	18,432	4,500
4. Zebra	18,432	6,500
6. Horses	18,432	15,500
7. Tree Frog	18,432	8,500
23. Spider	18,432	13,000
Subtotal in Murals:	110,592	53,500

Total Pieces:

869,074

811,982

Ban the Wicked

As I was driving to see Wicked the musical, I passed a car that said, "Ban idiots, not guns." And it got me thinking, I get what the person is probably saying. Except that many people who commit gun crimes in America are actually not idiots necessarily, some of them have very high IQs and are very smart, but angry. Now, he might have been talking about the people who leave their guns accessible to children, who bring them to schools. Things like that that would be idiotic, I would agree, let's ban those people. And yes, people should be more responsible with their guns. But I've been thinking a lot about the root of crime lately. Specifically, that I don't think most criminals are inherently evil; they're not committing crimes just for the sake of doing bad. I believe most criminals are probably acting out of desperation. They have a problem that they can't figure out how to solve the "right way" and the systems that we've created around them make it difficult for them to improve their situation, and so they resort to crime in order to resolve those issues. It doesn't make the crime "right;" I'm not condoning it. And obviously people are complex, and there will be some people who do have Machiavellian tendencies that are maybe lumped under the category of evil. But most people, I suspect, aren't motivated to do wrong because of a pure internal desire to hurt and destroy. 

I recently watched a 2015 documentary called, "Where to Invade Next." It was interesting! Michael Moore was traveling around Europe "taking" best practices and policies that are, honestly, pretty novel, and in some cases, rather shocking to the American mindset. I think of myself as a pretty open minded person and even I struggled with the subversion of the prison system and other concepts. Specifically, in Norway where, the people who are "locked up" for crimes have a key to their homes. It's not a cell. It's more like a neighborhood to play house in and be rehabilitated. They're allowed to have sharp knives in their kitchens to cook fresh meals. They are allowed a lot of freedom to pursue various activities. The country's prison guards treat their prisoners very well and it's more of a rehab and a place to learn, "Hey, here's how to be a good neighbor" rather than treating them like lesser than humans. And the question is, does it work? And in Norway, it does. They have less repeat offenders and they have less crime overall. So somehow the threat of having to go into a more comfortable prison system allows that country to keep their crime rates at bay. They also allow their ex-convicts to vote, which is something that we don't do in America. And that's kind of stripping the human rights, making them lesser humans in some ways. And maybe that reduces the anger for would-be repeat criminals: the culture and the politics which American ex-convicts see, specifically, difficulties in finding a job and not letting them have voting rights, is kind of reinforcing that the only thing that they can do is act out on it and commit crimes to make their voice heard and get what they need. 

Anyways, back to the main crux of my topic today. I wonder if the thought about implementing universal basic income, UBI - lifting people up using automation, using AI - is the path forward, instead of allowing people to have increasingly more menial jobs or no jobs. If we can finally use technology to make our lives happier, healthier, easier, I think there would be less crime. I don't profess that I know the answer; I don't know how to make that happen exactly. But I think what we're doing with the justice system and gun laws and the like may be attacking the wrong problem. We really need to be looking at why these people are involved in crime to begin with. What's the root cause of why they are resorting to a crime?

And I wonder if the Norway prison system would work here. And truthfully I don't think it would. I don't think we could copy it over and we instantly start getting less repeat offenders. Send our criminals to neighborly rehab and we lower crime - I don't think that's going to work in America, not by itself. So then I started thinking about why does it work in Norway and why wouldn't it be able to work here in the US. And I think the answer is, you have to look at the people of Norway or the Nordic culture more broadly. They are content in a very cold environment. The Danish have what they call Hygge which is when it's so cold outside that you just kind of bundle up and have a cozy time inside with your family and friends. Norway has a form of this called koselig. That's a form of being content in a cold climate. Living in, maybe what some might consider a miserable situation, and I don't think Americans do enough of that. I think we are raised to want more. We are raised to expect more. We are raised to challenge the norms. 

And I think that's it's a love / hate kind of thing, right? It's a two-sided sword. We're brilliant in America: Hollywood and pop culture / pop music, inventions, creativity, innovation. We brought the internet to the world. We have all these things, and I think it's because of that audacity, so it's kind of like you have to pick your poison, because the Scandinavians aren't rolling out a ton of innovations everyday. They're contentedness maybe doesn't create the same kind of drive; it doesn't fuel that spark for creativity that comes from the audacity to be discontented. So we have to ask ourselves, is this the America that we want? Though it's the America that's audacious and not satisfied with the status quo that's what's gotten us here. That's the super power of America - it makes us creative and innovative, but unhappy with the cozy mundane. Is that the America that we want in the future? Those criminals aren't necessarily innovators; they're not productively generating GDP for the country or anything like that, but they are being audacious and challenging the norms (/laws) in their own ways, right? 

So I think that's why the Norway prison system wouldn't work here, because the Norway system is built on the foundation of contentedness. So they can say, "You know man, you really messed up. We're going to take away your koselig. We're going to take away your ability to be content at home with family, and we're going to teach you how to be a better, more appreciative person in a different environment." Whereas Americans are not taught to be content to start with or expected to settle for staying indoors when it's too cold to go out. If we tried to implement the Norwegian prison system, the criminals or would-be criminals would say, "Oh yeah, cheating the system man, this is this is golden. I should commit crimes more often!" So our way of punishing instead of lifting criminals up is our reaction to people that stepped too far out of line. They were taught to be audacious but they were TOO audacious - they didn't follow the laws that we set down and that's not okay. And I think that's why we have such a big military, right? We have a huge military industrial complex and a full complement of military services. We're audacious, but you better not be more audacious than us or go against our beliefs, because we got this huge military. It's like we're policing and imprisoning the world, or at least any group that is too audacious and out of line as defined by our standards. We have to have a big military because we believe that we're right and if anybody dares to think otherwise we need to punish them. So US prisons are a microcosm of our military positioning within the world. Really, if you think about it that way, like we don't care if we're committing crimes against nations if we believe they've wronged us is the same as we don't mind locking up criminals. 

So what do we do differently? And again, this is where I do not have all the answers. There's probably research that a lot of thoughts you know that I'm missing on here, but I think we really need to be focusing our attention, not on the punishment of the crime but on the root cause of the desperation. And again, there's going to be a subset of people that are just going to choose to hurt just for the sake of hurting or they're choosing to hurt because it makes them happier. But the vast majority of criminals, I think, are acting out because they're angry. They're desperate. They're not finding their way in life. They're not doing well in life, and so they're acting in a way that they think will get them what they want. If we want to address that, it's not about gun regulation. It's not about stricter punishments or even about our prison system and making it a happier place. I think it's about making our society more aligned with how we can help the people that are at the bottom, or at the most desperate places and I think it's about how we need to align on common goals and values. I know that's tough because we have a freedom of religion and a lot of diverse people that live here in the US and that's part of the goodness in some sense. But on the other hand, we don't have the common value of koselig like the Norwegians and we can't operate from a place of, "Well, I have different values than you so therefore I can choose to break the law." We have to find some way to get behind one set of values and laws, and make the laws align with the values and then enable people to be able to live those ways.

The irony of having these thoughts right now as I'm on my way to see the musical, Wicked, is that Wicked, is at its core, about a "criminal" who was misunderstood. And on that note, "Ahhh AHHH AHHH ahhhhh!"

Death in Texas: Thoughts While Driving to Tyler

Why am I driving in Tyler, Texas today? It's a long story. But it's something I felt like I needed to do today. On my way though, I've seen such an interesting juxtaposition of Texas. As I rounded just the very first clover entrance to the freeway, I noticed two cop cars with their lights on that were parked and I may have rubber necked just a touch trying to figure out what they were there for. I looked down into the middle of the clover and saw that there was an overturned car down there, so I guess now we know. Later, as I was driving past a cemetery, I happened to glimpse a casket in the process of being towed and lowered into a grave. I stopped at a gas station to fuel up and to get a snack, and there were four Las Vegas style slot machine arcade games. A gentleman was sitting at one of the games; he looked like he had kind of given up on life, or maybe was really hopeful that this would change his life. Texas just feels so depressing sometimes. And it makes me wonder what we're even doing on this Earth with our lives. 

One of the billboards I saw repeated a few times was a Christian billboard with children's wooden alphabet blocks showing A-B-C, and it was something like A: admit your sins and B: believe in Christ and C: something else. I don't know, whatever, but it's just so funny to me to think of Christians thinking that that's a good idea. They're so in their own belief system that they don't understand that that doesn't resonate with non-Christians. If you're a believer, you might think that's such a clever idea to spread the message on billboards - brilliant! But if you're not a believer, that simple ABC thing is actually demeaning or just stupid and laughable. It prompted me to later look up if there were statistics on people converting to Christianity as a result of a billboard speaking to them. I found that, of course, there is a low conversation rate, but more interesting or maybe appalling is that the Christians funding it don't actually seek to convert - the messaging is more about reconfirming their own beliefs for their club of believers, presumably providing comfort in moments of need or doubt. So they're literally admitting that not only is the tactic ineffective to actually spreading the message but that they put them up so they can feel good about the echo chamber they create. It's almost like they're buying faith. 

There's so much information overload in the world and I I wonder if that makes us believe whatever we want to believe because we can't believe everything we read. So instead of being discerning readers, skilled in applying the scientific principles, we're merely choosing to read the stuff and believe the stuff that resonates with our own beliefs. Instead of a healthy skepticism, we outright reject anything that doesn't reinforce our chosen beliefs. Road rage largely comes from everybody thinking they're right, and that other driver is an idiot. They've been wronged, regardless of what the other person is trying to do or doing or going through.

I do a lot of traveling out of DFW, and I've noticed the airport's water bottle refill stations are almost always red for the filter needing to be replaced. I tried the water once from a filter in that status and it was terrible. This is not a problem at any other airport I frequent. Isn't it just so Texas to reject the maintenance of water filters to save on plastic bottles? Like, that shouldn't be a political thing but, yet, it somehow makes sense. Republicans don't believe in global warming or environmental sustainability, so therefore water is bad at DFW airport. Water! The stuff of life! Are ya'll okay? (She said ironically, because she refuses to adopt the local contraction in earnest.) 

And so we've come full circle: death, salvation, echo chambers, and the stuff of life, the lack of which is death. Texas!