NOW STAGNANT IN HEART, MIND, AND BODY (nothing fits nor operates as it should), I recollect, without emotion, the vast spread that had, at one time, been my surrogate guardian. My impoverished family cherished the land and the sea that stretched outward beyond infinity; but it was I, more than all the others, who took to the bleak and harsh landscape of the Mont Bleu coast. In a most peculiar manner, the dank surroundings soothed and enveloped me in crawling mists that were more welcomed by me than were the evaporating rays of an inland summer sun. I, alone, it would seem, saw what lay beneath the obvious, the physical.
I, however, am no longer that inquisitive lad who found delight in the weird, the grotesque, the unseemly. A man in the physical sense of the word but now devoid of the erstwhile childlike fascination of a once magical existence, I now reside in The City, my material needs fulfilled and luxuries absent during youth abounding. With languid eyes, I gaze upon the cold of steel and stone and glass; their combination in regal, imposing edifices commands my admiring view yet scarcely my heart.
It is through a clean and shining pane that I survey my kingdom, while the wild child of yore vanishes from all remembrance . . .
A Boy, a Man
by compound complex 6 Replies latest jw friends
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compound complex
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compound complex
Thanks, Zeb!
Found this piece re: the imagination of a child interesting:
[Walter de la Mare's] biographer Doris Ross McCrosson summarises this passage, "Children are, in short, visionaries." This visionary view of life can be seen as either vital creativity and ingenuity, or fatal disconnection from reality (or, in a limited sense, both).
The increasing intrusions of the external world upon the mind, however, frighten the childlike imagination, which "retires like a shocked snail into its shell". From then onward the boyish imagination flourishes, the "intellectual, analytical type".
By adulthood (de la Mare proposed), the childlike imagination has either retreated for ever or grown bold enough to face the real world. Thus emerge the two extremes of the spectrum of adult minds: the mind moulded by the boylike is "logical" and "deductive". That shaped by the childlike becomes "intuitive, inductive". For de la Mare, "The one knows that beauty is truth, the other reveals that truth is beauty." Yet another way he puts it is that the visionary's source of poetry is within, while the intellectual's sources are without – external – in "action, knowledge of things, and experience" (McCrosson's terms). De la Mare hastens to add that this does not make the intellectual's poetry any less good, but it is clear where his own preference lies.
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LV101
Coco - blue painting is quite an expanse of blue tranquility. Very textural yet soothing -- is this your own work of art?
I think age/less energy and being slathered in material comforts (always a good thing w/age) has conquered the young boy's suspense of the landscape and continuation of expeditions/explorations. You have some incredible experiences and memories for writing material - do share.
Thanks, again, so enjoyed.
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compound complex
Thank you, LV101, for taking the time to read my piece about an adventurous child become a jaded but still decent human being.
Yes, the painting is mine. It's one of my last oils, before I ventured into water-based media.
Blessings and peace!
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LV101
Always a pleasure to read your adventures/anything -- sometimes "jaded" helps us balance out. Adventurous is always good while we can get out the door and run for it! The aging factor is brutal and certainly changes one's life. Even recovering from the common cold makes me want to jump a plane and go see what I can before it's too late -- the flip side is to stay home and enjoy the magnificent sunsets. If only I had the beautiful ocean here but that's what keeps me leaving town!
Water-based media is great/challenging and healthier but I love the look of oil. Always good to know more than one medium.
Keep care - ditto the blessings/peace!
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