Yang is the expanding force. A good road trip is very yang because my
world is expanding during a road trip. I know more places and people
than I did before the trip. I have passed all day thinking how the
world creates itself, and how I participate in that world by showing
up and enjoying it. So the woman who was mopping the floor in
Rochester, Indiana at 4 AM in the morning drove herself to the
GasAmerica off US-31 around 10 PM Saturday night. She bought the van
second hand so she had enough seats for the grandchildren, maybe, but
she couldn't afford to buy new or have the rust along the bottom
repaired. She'll never look for another job because the day shift
always finds the shelves stocked and the floor free of grime and salt
and the bathrooms immaculate. She made choices and I decided at 3:38
AM Sunday morning to exit the interstate and find a loo. Our worlds
will never cross so directly again, or so I think. Thinking is a very
unreliable method for experiencing reality, alas. Now, I am seriously pursuing Yin. I arrived home at 9 in the morning.
I was very happy to be in a place where all I needed was close at
hand. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner in my kitchen, a good book by
the couch and a warm comforter on my bed. I didn't go anywhere on
Sunday after arriving home. Once, I looked out my window to see if it
had snowed. In about four hours, I'll be pulled out of my cocoon and
drive to my office and focus on my screen, writing and programming and
checking very small computer events that hardly exist in the physical
world. I'll complete and expense report, which will be a curious
artifact of my journey. I drank an entire bottle, about two pints, of
hard cider from Douglas Valley Winery, Manistee, Michigan and it feels
to me like a medicine. The apple is a small concentration of food and
sugar and it is very yin. The cider concentrates that Yin even more. I
am glad I left the hard cider in my refridgerator until this day. I
think it's been in there for a year. In a few minutes, I will turn my
body over to sleep, as Yin as my body can experience and still rise up
to Yang in the morning. I try to prove the world exists by recording it by blogging,
journaling, even picture taking. After a day at home, I begin to
wonder if I had been dreaming. This isn't the quote from Least Heat Moon I had been searching for,
but it is close in expressing what I feel this morning: "Instead of insight, maybe all a man gets is strength to wander for a
while. Maybe the only gift is a chance to inquire, to know nothing for
certain. An inheritance of wonder and nothing more."
— William Least Heat-Moon (Blue Highways. Eine Reise in Amerika.) William Least Heat-Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Least_Heat-Moon
world is expanding during a road trip. I know more places and people
than I did before the trip. I have passed all day thinking how the
world creates itself, and how I participate in that world by showing
up and enjoying it. So the woman who was mopping the floor in
Rochester, Indiana at 4 AM in the morning drove herself to the
GasAmerica off US-31 around 10 PM Saturday night. She bought the van
second hand so she had enough seats for the grandchildren, maybe, but
she couldn't afford to buy new or have the rust along the bottom
repaired. She'll never look for another job because the day shift
always finds the shelves stocked and the floor free of grime and salt
and the bathrooms immaculate. She made choices and I decided at 3:38
AM Sunday morning to exit the interstate and find a loo. Our worlds
will never cross so directly again, or so I think. Thinking is a very
unreliable method for experiencing reality, alas. Now, I am seriously pursuing Yin. I arrived home at 9 in the morning.
I was very happy to be in a place where all I needed was close at
hand. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner in my kitchen, a good book by
the couch and a warm comforter on my bed. I didn't go anywhere on
Sunday after arriving home. Once, I looked out my window to see if it
had snowed. In about four hours, I'll be pulled out of my cocoon and
drive to my office and focus on my screen, writing and programming and
checking very small computer events that hardly exist in the physical
world. I'll complete and expense report, which will be a curious
artifact of my journey. I drank an entire bottle, about two pints, of
hard cider from Douglas Valley Winery, Manistee, Michigan and it feels
to me like a medicine. The apple is a small concentration of food and
sugar and it is very yin. The cider concentrates that Yin even more. I
am glad I left the hard cider in my refridgerator until this day. I
think it's been in there for a year. In a few minutes, I will turn my
body over to sleep, as Yin as my body can experience and still rise up
to Yang in the morning. I try to prove the world exists by recording it by blogging,
journaling, even picture taking. After a day at home, I begin to
wonder if I had been dreaming. This isn't the quote from Least Heat Moon I had been searching for,
but it is close in expressing what I feel this morning: "Instead of insight, maybe all a man gets is strength to wander for a
while. Maybe the only gift is a chance to inquire, to know nothing for
certain. An inheritance of wonder and nothing more."
— William Least Heat-Moon (Blue Highways. Eine Reise in Amerika.) William Least Heat-Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Least_Heat-Moon
No comments:
Post a Comment