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May 06, 2005
Glory and Amen
Taking a break from composing an essay the other evening, I read an essay about Annie Dilliard's essays, which in turn prompted me to take my own essay outside. What they don't tell you about Britain is that even though the winter brings to mind what being a soldier in Napoleon's ranks would have felt like when he decided it would be a good idea to just take the trek into the Russian winter (not sure how he felt when his 600,000+ force was dwindled down to just two percent of that number), spring is a payoff.
In principle, I'm an environmentalist. In practice, I buy organic cereal and recycle up to three times yearly (though I will openly provoke conversation about the pros and cons of organic farming and the fair trade movement.) On a normal day, I would probably say I'm an environmentalist, but having read at lunch yesterday an obituary about the man who founded Greenpeace (putting his life in jeopardy seemingly on a monthly basis to stop things like a seal hunting ship) my perspective is, for once, in alignment.
The fact remains that I spend more time behind a computer screen and toeing pavement each week than I spend in nature in a year. But taking a pen and paper into the middle of the downs on campus was almost exhilarating. Nevermind the fact that it got cloudy as soon as I sat down or the fact that I was constantly in danger of being barraged with errant frisbees, products of the woefully unskilled frisbee-"throwing" British populace.
I think a certain bit of my affection was identifiably nostalgia. There was a breath of warmth in the air, a salient signal of home. On top of that, a pigeon was bathing in a stagnant puddle of water that had leaked from a nearby dumpster. Two doves were sparring their feathers in a dogwood tree. A black banana peel was lying next to me in the grass.
But that's the thing with nature - it's always paradoxically affirming. In its disgust, affirming beauty. In its death, affirming life. Eventually, I returned inside. But not before marching down the trail to my hall, mindful to "take huge steps, trying to feel the planet's roundness arc between your feet," meditating on Dilliard's other words:
"I go my way, and my left foot says Glory and my right foot says Amen: in and out of Shadow Creek, upstream and down, exultant, in a daze, dancing, to the twin silver trumpets of praise."
Posted by houch at May 6, 2005 12:02 AM
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Comments
Just don't turn into one of those Greenpeace asshole lackeys with the clipboards trying to get people to sign up.
Otherwise, what are your free trade feelings?
Posted by: Lou at May 6, 2005 12:34 AM
Nice post, Palmer. Want to hike the Appalachian trail with me? I want to get in touch with nature the hardest way possible.
There's a chance that this year I'm going to experience a Scottish winter, which is something that hasnt' happened in a while, and I'm slightly nervous.
Oh, and there is trash all around this dorm, and it's pretty disgusting, BUT, were it not for said trash, the Stewart raccoon wouldn't hang around the area. The bravest raccoon in the world lives right outside. He's really cute.
Posted by: susie at May 6, 2005 04:41 AM
you've gotten good palmer.
that was very nice.
so nice, in fact, i might steal it.
Posted by: jimmy j at May 6, 2005 05:38 AM
oh annie dillard. she's #2 on my list of "top five writers i wish i could be instead of myself", just behind flannery o'connor and followed closely by jonathan safran foer who is tied with emily dickinson, who are followed by wendell berry, and for now, f. scott fitzgerald, though that fifth spot is a rotating one.
Posted by: bethan at May 6, 2005 06:28 AM
you know, i've actually come to the decision that I can quit fighting it, i'm not an outdoor/nature person. I love the city. give me a long walk north on Broadway over a mountain hike any day!
Posted by: Matt Kilgore at May 6, 2005 06:10 PM
Lou, if I ever turn into an asshole lackey, please scold me. And I said "fair trade" not "free trade." Beyond that, I'd like to make trade fair. Easier said than done.
Susie, like I said, it's not my fear of nature that keeps me of the Appalachian. It's the fear inside my legs about their self-preservation.
Jimmy, that's called plagiarism. And I'll be all over your ass.
Bethan, that's a good top five. If I get really shot for content on my blog, just maybe I'll post Bethan's Top Five Writers. It would be quite a switch in intellectual property.
Matt, you know you want to run bare-chested over mountaintops, day after day.
Posted by: Houch at May 7, 2005 04:44 PM