Beautiful, down-to-earth spirituality. We humans do “complicate things,” and I thank the author (and their trusty dog) for this humble and awe-inspiring glimpse of “the curve of the earth.”
Thank you for this, Elissa. I last climbed Mt. Battie about five years ago and don't think I will do it again in my lifetime. But it has always been--not just a beautiful place but a fine place for gazing out at the whole world and trying to make some sense of it. Of course I think always of Edna St. Vincent Millay and her most famous poem, written on or of that mountain: "So with my eyes I traced the line
Of the horizon, thin and fine, Straight around till I was come Back to where I'd started from."
Well, maybe we will take a ride up together next year. I love that Millay poem and cannot imagine her climbing Battie in her high-top shoes. Of course, we all know she wore boots....
At this very moment people from all over the world are praying for something. Prayer is a chant, a silly thing humans do to change the course of their river if only that God-guy would help. Some people pray to the stars, to the universe, to mother earth-it calms us and sometimes it works.
Absolutely amen. You being a writer helps you to discern the layers. I’m not, but I have a daughter that is, & she says it’s because I always always read to her, took her hiking ,& said” just listen”.
I don’t know, but @ age 70? I do know what I respond to,& will pass along to that incredible tribe of 3 daughter, 5 grandchildren, all whom are hell bent on their own trajectories.
Nice summation: "Like the mountains in The Snow Leopard, it has no meaning; it is meaning."
Archibald MacLeish climbed to the same summit in Ars Poetica: “A poem should not mean/But be.”
Thank you Gary -
Piece o' cake!
(Happy to do it)
Beautiful, down-to-earth spirituality. We humans do “complicate things,” and I thank the author (and their trusty dog) for this humble and awe-inspiring glimpse of “the curve of the earth.”
The author thanks you back!
Thank you for this, Elissa. I last climbed Mt. Battie about five years ago and don't think I will do it again in my lifetime. But it has always been--not just a beautiful place but a fine place for gazing out at the whole world and trying to make some sense of it. Of course I think always of Edna St. Vincent Millay and her most famous poem, written on or of that mountain: "So with my eyes I traced the line
Of the horizon, thin and fine, Straight around till I was come Back to where I'd started from."
Well, maybe we will take a ride up together next year. I love that Millay poem and cannot imagine her climbing Battie in her high-top shoes. Of course, we all know she wore boots....
At this very moment people from all over the world are praying for something. Prayer is a chant, a silly thing humans do to change the course of their river if only that God-guy would help. Some people pray to the stars, to the universe, to mother earth-it calms us and sometimes it works.
Yes ---
Absolutely amen. You being a writer helps you to discern the layers. I’m not, but I have a daughter that is, & she says it’s because I always always read to her, took her hiking ,& said” just listen”.
I don’t know, but @ age 70? I do know what I respond to,& will pass along to that incredible tribe of 3 daughter, 5 grandchildren, all whom are hell bent on their own trajectories.
Thank you for your words. They do resonate.