“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.”
― Barry Finlay
Mountains know and Trees believe
Mountains have certainty and trees ambition
Both are of earth but where trees have air and water,
Mountains have fire
Mountains stand tall but resist change
yet fall prey to erosion
Trees bend with the wind yet are
much more vulnerable
The River is the carefree agent of change
It cares not for knowledge, belief or ambition
Its only interest is in the stories it collects
along his carefree path
“In wrestling, nothing exists unless it exists totally, there is no symbol, no allusion, everything is given exhaustively; leaving nothing in shadow, the gesture severs every parasitical meaning and ceremonially presents the public with a pure and full signification, three dimensional, like Nature. Such emphasis is nothing but the popular and ancestral image of the perfect intelligibility of reality. What is enacted by wrestling, then, is an ideal intelligence of things, a euphoria of humanity, raised for a while out of the constitutive ambiguity of everyday situations and installed in a panoramic vision of a univocal Nature, in which signs finally correspond to causes without obstacle, without evasion, and without contradiction.”
― Roland Barthes, Mythologies
Tonight, not for the first time, I went with my family to a WWE show. My son has been a fan for quite a while and so on the rare occasions when the WWE comes to Vancouver we try to get tickets. I enjoy the theatrics of it. Real injuries seldom happen so what you get is a show of simplistic good vs simplistic bad put on by athletes and entertainers who know how to punch, kick and even throw someone without causing any great injury. The violence such as it is thus that of a cartoon in nature. There is a grace to it that is rather fun along with a visceral sense of excitement. As a ceremony and ritual it is rather grounding and quite a bit fun.
Blessings, G
“Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More and more people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them. At bottom, mountains, like all wildernesses, challenge our complacent conviction – so easy to lapse into – that the world has been made for humans by humans. Most of us exist for most of the time in worlds which are humanly arranged, themed and controlled. One forgets that there are environments which do not respond to the flick of a switch or the twist of a dial, and which have their own rhythms and orders of existence. Mountains correct this amnesia. By speaking of greater forces than we can possibly invoke, and by confronting us with greater spans of time than we can possibly envisage, mountains refute our excessive trust in the man-made. They pose profound questions about our durability and the importance of our schemes. They induce, I suppose, a modesty in us.”
― Robert Macfarlane
I spent the greater part of today in Whistler, BC visiting friends and enjoying the mountain view. Whistler, besides being the site of the Winter Olympics in 2012 is renown for skiing and hiking. Outside of the resorts it also has become something of a large picturesque shopping mall. On a busy holiday weekend, thousands of people could be seen shopping and milling around. Many were attending a yoga festival and in the main field of the tourist park mall there were around fifty people, impressing lookers on and their friends with the way that they could contort their bodies. There were kids running and lots of dogs and people generally having a good time but moving quickly from one place to another.
It felt good to look to the mountains and see the unmoving. They have been there way before there was an Olympic village and way before there was a native fishing village. They preceded humans and may very well be there way past the time when we are not. I look to them and find patience and acceptance of everything that happens and a will to observe the hurry-scurry with tolerance, forbearing and humour even as I participated in it. Like the mountains I will forbear what comes my way tho unlike them I find times when action is necessary and even preferable. A mountain view always strengthens me tho as I realize that little that seems traumatic and important in the moment truly matters from another perspective.
Blessings, G
“…there ain’t no journey what don’t change you some.”
― David Mitchell
This may be a short entry tonight for once again I have spent the day travelling from west to east and I find myself weary. This is another trip visiting relatives with kids and pets and general merriment. Still every journey should have a purpose and this is a voyage of recharging and empowerment for me. I have the intention of doing only that which brings joy and forsaking the rest and bring that sense of fun back with me to Vancouver.
Blessings, G
“We live not only in a world of thoughts, but also in a world of things. Words without experience are meaningless.”
— Vladimir Nabokov
Don’t speak unless you know what you are talking about would seem to make a lot of sense. I know I’ve thought it enough times when my fifteen year old son who knows as only a fifteen year old can with total certainty what life’s about starts displaying loudly his opinions on things like marriage, jobs, relationships, politics etc. Yet if we don’t present our thoughts for inspection and dialectic than how can we test them? Is it not also experience to say what we’re thinking and have it challenged so that we can think critically about it? Critical thinking seems as I advance in years to be becoming more and more important and yet fewer and fewer people seem to practice it. Without critical thought about our experiences how do we put them into context. It is only by constantly challenging our own ideas by either discussion or experience that we can truly grow.
Blessings, G
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
William Blake
strange when you look at trees and meditate beneath them, they take on a life of their own.
It’s difficult to see two with their roots wrapped around each other without imagining them uniting sexually
In a state of eternal bliss.
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tho it is in the glow of the sun set that I get the most enjoyment. As the light fades to be replaced by the different life of the nighttime
Sitting here in the woods under the twisted snake tree. It’s been a day of contemplation, meditation, walking and getting necessities and reading “Time Fate and Spider Magic” by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule.
So far it’s been a pretty amazing contemplation on time, fate, archetypes, esoteric symbolism and many other things written well with
Style and wit. I find myself taking notes in a poetic style that veers off from the book.
These few days are for letting the mud settle tho or at least churning it a bit for different colour and flavour
I let my mind wander where it will and in meditation see clear roads ahead and a non distressed lady in distress lying in the dirt inviting aid or discourse. Such are dreams.
I mentioned poetic notes and here in hope that those who read will enjoy I include them in this rather stream if consciousness ramble.
Relative speeds
Of children and trees
Of hunger and needs
Of eggs and of seeds
Mediate and meditate
And spend the timeless moment
Stem the tides of nature
Spider web and serpent time
Fate weaving its web along snake’s twisted corridors
I play in shadow in the long woods
Ritual dance among the trees and growth
Fire water and air bring the others
Who dance amid my own castings
my thoughts continue to form but some nice family time is happening. Tomorrow perhaps the dirt will settle and my rambling snore clear.
Blessings,
G
“It is necessary … for a man to go away by himself … to sit on a rock … and ask, ‘Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?”
― Carl Sandburg
It has now been almost a week since I’ve returned. When I left I had a goal in mind of making some decisions. I wanted some clarity on the direction that this next stage of my life would take. I had some vague ideas but no clear cut vision of what I wanted. I hoped that distance from the day to day would give me this.
I saw many impressive things on this trip. I traveled to Venice and Rome, Athens and Barcelona, cities that were somewhat mythical to me, a lifelong reader about places I had yet to see. I saw some of the most impressive works of art of western civilization and met many people. Yet still no answers were forthcoming or at least not immediate ones. Oh I learned a few things about myself and remembered others. I love the water and travelling upon it. Exploring new cities makes my heart sing. I have a knack for languages and love trying to speak to people in their native tongue and I love the stories that people tell. I love in-depth exploration of ideas and people more than I like skimming the surface in any kind of social way. I would much rather be a visitor to a place rather than a tourist. Visitors tend to be more welcome and less interested in seeing the sites and buying trinkets than tourists. I would rather eat in small roadside places with people who live day to day than in fine restaurants with other tourists. I am fascinated by what other artists produce.
How can I use those facts in a constructive way? That I have yet to learn.
Oh a few things have come from it. I love the masques that they sell in Venice and would love to see what I could do in that medium. I have a new idea for a set of tarot cards based on Venetian Masques. I have lots of inspiration for art and more motivation than ever to finish the things I’ve started.
All in all, as I sit on this rock (well chair) and reflect I find these things impressive and encouraging. Yet the journey is always beginning, ending and in progress.
Blessings, G
“Memory’s images, once they are fixed in words, are erased,” Polo said. “Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.”
― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
On this trip I have seen many cities. The sites of all of them will stick with me. Seeing Michelangelo’s David and the Acropolis was awesome in the true sense of the word. People watching in Barcelona was amazing as were the streets of Naples and Kusadasi. Yet no city has captured my heart the way Venice has. I could walk the tunnels and side streets for days and in my dreams I still do. I love the canals and watching the boats and the light on the water. The vendors selling their t-shirts and knick knacks seemingly indifferent. San Marcos Basilica and the Dodge’s Palace are filled with art that take the breath away. The craftsmen in the stores sell their glassware and masques and tell stories as enthralling as those in Kusadasi yet where the former talks about who made them, the artists in Venice talk about how they are made. The work itself is beautiful. It is a city of artists of one kind or another.
There are also contradictions in its streets. Along the outside of the Venetian labyrinth everything is geared towards the tourists. Along the smaller narrower lanes and tunnels closer to the centre there is a lot more poverty and people are less fond of the thousands of streaming tourists passing through. Dogs walk off leash beside their owners freely, the more aggressive ones muzzled. As in every city we saw on this voyage, the city walls are strewn with graffiti. In Venice, it is just one more form of art. The gondoliers and water taxis add to the traffic in the canals with grace as do the commuters in their private boats. The food is amazing, whether in an expensive restaurant or in a cheaper pizza stand. There is music in the heart of Venice. The concertinas play alongside the American rock streaming from radios in the smaller shops.
Venice has its share of history as well. I visited the site of Marco Polo’s house (replaced first by an Opera House which was then replaced by apartments. I also saw one of Vivaldi’s houses (apparently he had many movements within Venice) and the site of one of his concerts. On the waterfront square where we stayed, there were people in costume dressed as Casanova and his lady love and the ubiquitous masques carry reminders of earlier times.
One day I will return to Venice and spend at least a week there. Three days was definitely not long enough. Until then I will revisit it in my memories.
Blessings, G
“If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.”
― Masaru Emoto
I hoped to do some all out blogging today. I have been working on some new art, and still have posts about Venice and coming home to write about. Jet lag does tend to interfere a bit. So instead will spend some time returning to myself and tomorrow will start anew.
Thank you all for following the journey.
Blessings, G
Click on image to see full sized:L
Approaching the Airport in Venice (Via Water taxi)
The Consciousness of Space by G A Rosenberg 
The Consciousness of Space by G A Rosenberg 
Ringed by G A Rosenberg
