To: K-list
Recieved: 2001/04/03 06:20
Subject: [K-list] More ramblings on the land
From: Murrkis
On 2001/04/03 06:20, Murrkis posted thus to the K-list:
(Hmm, something seems to be up with the email route. Has anyone else had
difficulty with email getting lost?)
>Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 08:43:48 -0400
>To:K-list
>From:murrkisATnospammindspring.com (Nina and John Murrell-Kisner)
>Subject:More ramblings on the land
>
>Dear All,
>
>Ok, so bear with me while I ramble a bit more... ;)
>
>We moved to Asheville from Seattle in early early 1998, leaving mountains
>and dense forests behind (not to mention some of the most comforting
>connections to water... but that's another story), driving down the coast
>to Los Angeles and then eastward through desert, flat-line horizon land.
>Amazingly beautiful in it's own way, so much life, yet so hard on human
>life. Onwards into hill country, piney forests of the southeast. Into the
>mountains of "Smokey Blue Ridges".
>
>This took us slightly over two weeks. Driving, but not nessecarily long
>days. How is that for getting an inkling of how huge the world is?
>
>When we first arrived, I drew an iconic cartoon of comparing the two
>mountain ranges:
>
>On the one hand, a triangle of a mountain with triangular trees upon it.
>Seattle.
>
>On the other, a half-circle mountain with lollipop trees upon it. Asheville.
>
>More comparisons of Asheville and Seattle, a meditation on the limitations
>and support provided by landscape and built form in the expression of our
>lives...
>
>Seattle: densely populated, yes, but one is never far from connection to
>nature. My walk to work, 30 minutes, typically, though through the center
>of the city, was relieved virtually every step of the way by views out to
>the Olympics, down to water, up towards Mount Rainier (on clear days).
>Everything bathed in what some might consider an oppressive
>bluegreygreenness... but that bluegreygreenness is the blood of that
>place... it compells attention to color and light in a very specific way
>(Wim, and especially Angelique, you're probably aware of what this
>atmosphere does to one's sense of space, color, light...). It compells
>attention to materiality as a counterpoint to the weather... and attention
>to interior spaces, as this is where people MUST find comfort (no balmy
>weather to depend on) and this need is readily met. A city with a very
>specific relationship with nature... the relationship of exchange and
>symbiosis. The city is what it is because of the landscape and the
>weather... in Seattle, you can't be in one without reference to the other.
>This leads very directly to a constant awareness of the sublime. If
>nothing else, you wonder "where in the world can all this rain come from?"
>
>Asheville: I recall reading about a tribe of people whose social customs
>include the greeting of everyone. I'm talking about full greeting, down to
>asking about the great-grandparents and how dinner was last night and does
>your dog have a toothache. That kind of detailed greeting. Well, let me
>tell you... they have their counterpart in Asheville. It takes me 15
>minutes, average, to walk two short blocks to work. I must greet the hot
>dog man, the construction guys, wave at the music store owner, the wig
>shop owner, chat with Barbi (who cuts my hair), listen to stories about
>"old black Asheville" delivered by a man who spends whole days sitting
>under his umbrella on a folding chair on the sidewalk. If I stop off at
>the bookstore, I must chat with the most of the sales people. You get the
>scene: it's a small, small place.
>
>Oh, but the weather is generally lovely, and the landscape is pleasant,
>and the people are not wealthy, so the drive for built spaces that enrich
>our senses and selves is not fulfilled. The last time that need was met:
>during the heady days before the Depression. The connection to that past
>is retained, raised up, sat upon, while strip centers, suburban sprawl,
>and the opportunity for planning ahead are often denied. It is a
>disjointed relationship between city and nature... a definite
>romanticizing of leaving "big city life" to reside in the peace of nature.
>A denial that there is no longer any true nature uninformed by what is
>built. A denial that one may truly leave the city. A denial that by
>"leaving the city" one is not building a city. Self-reference taken to the
>extreme.
>
>The landscape reinforces this... valley upon valley like a bunched up
>carpet (look at an atlas, you'll see it is true). Relatively small rounded
>mountaintops, but steep and difficult to navigate. Downtown in a bowl of a
>valley, this is where I live. Surrounded every day by a visual boundary
>that extends only as far as the nearest ridge... and then, the bowl of the
>sky above. The awareness that develops is one of inwardness, focus on the
>locale, difficulty in leaving it (it is hard to get anywhere). Sinking
>down into that bunched up carpet. Ability to deny the existence of an
>outside world.
>
>John's grandmother, who lived for most of her life in West Virginia,
>lamented upon her move to South Carolina that there was nothing there to
>"prop her eyes up against".
>
>There is something quite honest about flat-line horizon landscapes. What
>you see is what you get.
>
>So, where does the SELF figure into all of this? What is the reality we
>must respond to? Can one honestly delve so deeply into the I AM that none
>of the above matters? If so, what is it worth? Is it worth changing? Is it
>worth working for change?
>
>Musings, that's all...
>
>Nina
http://www.kundalini-gateway.org
DISCLAIMER!
Home | Archive Index | Search the archives | Subscribe
K. List FAQ | Kundalini FAQs | Signs and Symptoms | Awakening Experiences | K. list Polls | Member Essays | Meditations | List Topics | Art Gallery | Cybrary | Sitemap | Email the moderators.
symbol.