So, I stumbled onto an old post, and if the comment system was working properly on anize, I would have known much sooner that a comment was added to it. But what can you do? However, I very much appreciated the question:
> Tell me, what was your last epiphany, and how did it change your everyday life?
Epiphany. I’m going to take this definition of the word: an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery; a revealing scene or moment.
I’m not quite sure if I’ve ever had a ‘first’ epiphany… does everyone get one? My latest thoughts have been spent looming in sheer awe of the beauty of a natural setting. When I see pictures of the world, in books or from my friends, I want so desperately to visit… so desperately to immerse myself in such a setting. I’m pent up in a philosophy grad program, racking my brain on the Ideas of things, when I know there is this sanctuary of serenity waiting for me in the open arms of mother nature.
My epiphany might be acknowledging the extremes to which mother nature is no longer very natural… or rather, humans have effected her in some way, at every point on earth. If not by the physical distruction of her roots, rocks, and critters, than surely by the intrusive disruption of her air, temperature and composition. I look out my window and see trees growing between slabs of cement, and I see bushes perfectly aligned in front of the building, with grass freshly mowed below. Has nature really become a cosmetic decoration for our twiddling fingers? Where can I go to see nature in true form? This is my epiphany…. that no where is left! Or maybe, that I must go!
My everyday life has changed very little, I guess. I have things to do here, and papers to grade/write, but the thoughts that accompany each day correspond to an ever growing restlessness within me….
My departure is forth-coming.
Posted by bell at June 8, 2005 01:49 PM | TrackBack"I also have to go..."
Bell, if leave you must, then gone soon you'll be.
-trangy
Posted by: ajm at June 8, 2005 03:32 PMIf you find Nature in "True Form" and you go there will it still exist in true form?
Posted by: Huge at June 9, 2005 11:52 AMThe real question I hear you raising is: would nature be willing to reclaim us? Or, rather, can we humans be understood (again) as nature in "True Form?"
Optimistically, I think so. I think there is a very natural state of (my) being, a peaceful belongingness that desperately yearns for its reunion with the higher Mother. I could quite easily sit myself down in a grassy meadow, or rocky slope. I could just be. And in my stillness, not a single creature would bear the burden of my presence, for in that moment, I would belong.
We are originally from Nature. Taking trees and bushes and lakes as we turn our backs, we run from her, because she won't come forward with an instruction manual on "how to live our life." We're empowered to enforce her and empowered to influence her, but still, she reminds us that we have no power at all. But this is the nature of the human: to relish in contradiction. We can hurt, help, or hold; and in my return to her embrace, I shall hold my mouth closed and my palms open. My eyes and ears will be hers, and I will receive in True Form. But, I like your question, Huge. Logically permissible, it made me pause... for three days in fact.
...ahh, 'logic' -- our son, our friend, and our oppressor.
Posted by: Bell at June 12, 2005 10:25 AM