Thursday, September 3, 2009
joy in nature
I really like how Emerson talks about "Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thought any occurence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhiliration. I am glad to the brink of fear." That's such an outstanding image! The idea of being completely taken aback by the splendor of nature, even when it's not doing anything unusual, is awesome. I LOVE having moment like that. Sometimes when I'm on the gondola in the mornings, or just hanging aorund in town, I loose my train of thought, and just start looking around and have one of those "wow" moments. It's like..."wow, this is just too amazing. There's no way soemthing this beautiful can even exist. How am I lucky enough to get to experience this, even live in it?" I think that's how Emerson felt, that kind of child-like awe, in the midst of nature. I think that's how he want us all to feel, all the time. He said "The lover of nature is he...who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." Think about how beautiful life would be if every single moment of our lives we truly appreciated nature and everything around us, as if it were the first time we'd ever seen it; think of how greatful we would all be! That would be wonderful.
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I like how i get a feel of your intrest in nature but i almost think its a little to much like what we were doing last year in A.P. lit. i think instead of saying how things "should be" you should focus like he does on how things are today. but i do enjoy your comparison with the gondola and how Emerson looks a nature with child like aww.
ReplyDeleteI actually like how you focus on the "wow" moments--an appropriate way to update and describe Emerson's 'Transcendental moment". I'm not sure I understand Athena's point. Indeed, I think that this post is clearly on the right track (though I'd love it if you wrote even more!).
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