Thursday, November 24, 2016

John Muir: life in the mountains

The following is an excerpt from John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir.

79
"These beautiful days must enrich all my  life.  They do not exist as mere pictures--maps hung upon the walls of memory to  brighten at times when touched by association or will, only to sink again like a landscape in the dark;  but they saturate themselves into every part of the body and live always."

-- John Muir --
from John Muir: In His Own Words


It's the same when I listen to my favorite musical works, the ones that I don't just hear,  but I can feel in my bones

12 comments:

  1. it's Vivaldi for me; i've his Concerto for Diverse Instruments careening through my head for over fifty years; and some of his oboe concerti... nature must have been like that for Muir, also: that feeling that oneself and the surround are one...

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    1. Mudpuddle,

      I know what you mean. For me, it's a number of Beethoven's works--symphonies, sonatas, concertos-- Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto, especially the 1st movement and others.

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  2. R.T.,

    I have found time to act strangely during those moments. The Grand Canyon is the only sacred place I know. I sit at the edge, away from the crowds, and go away somewhere. When I return, I feel sometimes that I have been there for hours and it's been only a few minutes. Other times, it's the opposite, for I find I've been sitting there for an hour or so, even though I felt it was only a few minutes.

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  3. R.T.,

    Chuckle...Well, I have had my moments.

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  4. R.T.,

    Were those "out-of-this-world moments" tied to a particular place or time?

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  5. don't think i should get into this discussion; suffice it to say, "me, too"....

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  6. R.T.,

    Frequently a very good place.

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  7. Replies
    1. if you'll remember i have a tendency to rattle on about things people don't want to hear about; so i try to contain myself to acceptable repartee... after all, civilized behavior is the vade mecum, nicht wahr?

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    2. Mudpuddle,

      Then people don't have to read them. I hope I've never shut you off here, even unknowingly. If I have, then please accept my apology.

      As for civilized behavior, it appears to be of lesser importance today than in the past. Or, perhaps it's just a different type of civilized behavior which I'm unable to recognize as such.

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    3. no apologies needed; life is a school: those of us who think, are constantly braving the wilderness of understanding... i've thought that "civilized behavior" is the grease that lets the juggernaut creep... currently it's at a standstill...

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    4. Mudpuddle,

      Or maybe creeping backwards?

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