Palmer Art Museum and Lion Shrine: Emerging Inspiration

Before going on our journey to the Palmer Art Museum and to the Lion Shrine, I recorded some of our class discussion and what we were looking to learn. I had written down, things such as: what history can we discover, how many toes does the lion have, how big is it (in comparison to other things), what is the environment like around it… So when we left the classroom I was confident in the knowledge that I wanted to gain from our trip. While I did find the answers to most of these predetermined questions that is not what stuck with me the most from my experience. It is cool to know that the paws outside of the Palmer Art Museum are designed differently, and that it takes twenty-one people sprawling themselves out connected to each other to reach the street from the shrine but these facts just didn’t excite me. When I left the shrine I felt a sense of pride and an overwhelming feeling of joy.  So, why did I feel like that?

While we were at the shrine an older couple came by to take pictures with their two grandchildren. My group was sitting closest to the Lion, so we struck up a conversation with them and Kris. (Stay tuned for some recorded parts of the conversation!) I quickly learned that the husband was a Nittany Lion and so were his three children. That weekend they had brought up their grandchildren to show them around campus and what it’s like to be a Penn Stater. When he talked about how Penn State used to be when he was there, he got this look on his face that spoke for itself. There was no questioning that the four years that this man spent here at Penn State, were the best years of his life. He was so proud to be a PSU alum, and to carry on the tradition throughout his family.

Penn State is more than a Institution of Higher Learning, or the home of great football and delicious ice cream. Penn State is pride, tradition, unique, forever. The lion represents all of this. To every Penn Stater, it means something different. In class today, I did learn some interesting facts, and I did discover things about the Lion that I never knew. But the most important and lasting thing that I took away from our experience was the magic that one stone lion can represent. It is not just a sculpture, it is a symbol of millions of stories, life journeys, traditions, pride, memories and pure joy. Nothing can replace what it stands for. PENN STATE forever.