{"id":15765,"date":"2014-06-27T10:11:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T14:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=15765"},"modified":"2016-07-10T12:30:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T16:30:49","slug":"sometimes-its-just-bliss-sometimes-its-the-whole-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/sometimes-its-just-bliss-sometimes-its-the-whole-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes, It&#8217;s Just Bliss. Sometimes, It&#8217;s the Whole Point."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name=\"top\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"intrinsic-container intrinsic-container-16x9\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qDsfou6UfjU?rel=0\" width=\"601\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Video: Lindsey Stirling and The Piano Guys, &#8220;Theme from <\/em>Mission Impossible<em>.&#8221;<br \/>\nSee <a href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/sometimes-its-just-bliss-sometimes-its-the-whole-point#note\">the note at the foot of this post<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From <a title=\"whiskey river: 'Sometimes, When the Light,' by Lisel Mueller\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2014\/06\/sometimes-when-light-sometimes-when.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Sometimes, When the Light<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles<br \/>\nand pulls you back into childhood<\/p>\n<p>and you are passing a crumbling mansion<br \/>\ncompletely hidden behind old willows<\/p>\n<p>or an empty convent guarded by hemlocks<br \/>\nand giant firs standing hip to hip,<\/p>\n<p>you know again that behind that wall,<br \/>\nunder the uncut hair of the willows<\/p>\n<p>something secret is going on,<br \/>\nso marvelous and dangerous<\/p>\n<p>that if you crawled through and saw,<br \/>\nyou would die, or be happy forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Lisel Mueller [<a title=\"Poetry Foundation: 'Sometimes, When the Light,' by Lisel Mueller\" href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poem\/243238\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: Robert Penn Warren, on the terror of not-knowing\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2014\/06\/it-was-like-second-when-you-come-home.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It was like the second when you come home late at night and see the yellow envelope of the telegram sticking out from under your door and you lean and pick it up, but don&#8217;t open it yet, not for a second. While you stand there in the hall, with the envelope in your hand, you feel there&#8217;s an eye on you, a great big eye looking straight at you from miles and dark and through walls and houses and through your coat and vest and hide and sees you huddled up way inside, in the dark which is you, inside yourself, like a clammy, sad little foetus you carry around inside yourself. The eye knows what&#8217;s in the envelope, and it is watching you to see you when you open it and know, too. But the clammy, sad little foetus which is you way down in the dark which is you too lifts up its sad little face and its eyes are blind, and it shivers cold inside you for it doesn&#8217;t want to know what is in that envelope. It wants to lie in the dark and not know, and be warm in its not knowing. The end of man is knowledge, but there is one thing he can&#8217;t know. He can&#8217;t know whether knowledge will save him or kill him. He will be killed, all right, but he can&#8217;t know whether he is killed because of the knowledge which he has got or because of the knowledge which he hasn&#8217;t got and which if he had it, would save him. There&#8217;s the cold in your stomach, but you open the envelope, you have to open the envelope, for the end of man is to know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Robert Penn Warren [<a title=\"Google Books: 'All the King's Men,' by Robert Penn Warren\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=mrfHr5H-0ysC&amp;pg=PA13#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: Alan Lightman, on the value of not-knowing\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2014\/06\/i-believe-that-it-is-bracing-and-vital.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I believe that it is bracing and vital to live in a world in which we do not know all the answers. I believe that we are inspired and goaded on by what we don&#8217;t understand. And I hope that there will always be an edge between the known and the unknown, beyond which lies strangeness and unpredictability and life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Alan Lightman [<a title=\"Amazon.com: highlight clipped from 'The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew,' by Alan Lightman\" href=\"https:\/\/kindle.amazon.com\/post\/r5tzI_uhRJiIcHBylYZeKg\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not from <em>whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Not Knowing Why<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Adolescent white pelicans squawk, rustle, flap their wings,<br \/>\nlift off in a ragged spiral at imaginary danger.<br \/>\nWhat danger on this island in the middle<br \/>\nof Marble Lake? They\u2019re off to feel<br \/>\nthe lift of wind under their iridescent wings,<br \/>\nbecause they were born to fly,<br \/>\nbecause they have nothing else to do,<br \/>\nbecause wind and water are their elements,<br \/>\ntheir Bach, their Homer, Shakespeare,<br \/>\nand Spielberg. They wheel over the lake,<br \/>\nthe little farms, the tourist village with their camera eyes.<\/p>\n<p>In autumn something urges<br \/>\nthem toward Texas marshes. They follow<br \/>\ntheir appetites and instincts, unlike the small beetles<br \/>\ncreeping along geometric roads, going toward small boxes,<br \/>\ntoward lives as narrow or as wide as the pond,<br \/>\nas glistening or as gray as the sky.<br \/>\nThey do not know why. They fly, they fly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Ann Struthers [<a title=\"American Life in Poetry: 'Not Knowing Why,' by Ann Struthers\" href=\"http:\/\/www.americanlifeinpoetry.org\/columns\/COL253.pdf\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What, then, is a travelling mind-set? Receptivity might be said to be its chief characteristic. Receptive, we approach new places with humility. We carry with us no rigid ideas about what is or is not interesting. We irritate locals because we stand in traffic islands and narrow streets and admire what they take to be unremarkable small details. We risk getting run over because we are intrigued by the roof of a government building or an inscription on a wall. We find a supermarket or a hairdresser\u2019s shop unusually fascinating. We dwell at length on the layout of a menu or the clothes of the presenters on the evening news. We are alive to the layers of history beneath the present and take notes and photographs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Alain de Botton [<a title=\"Amazon.com: 'The Art of Travel,' by Alain de Botton\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Art-Travel-Vintage-Alain-Botton-ebook\/dp\/B001LOEFZ0\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>For the Anniversary of My Death<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every year without knowing it I have passed the day<br \/>\nWhen the last fires will wave to me<br \/>\nAnd the silence will set out<br \/>\nTireless traveler<br \/>\nLike the beam of a lightless star<\/p>\n<p>Then I will no longer<br \/>\nFind myself in life as in a strange garment<br \/>\nSurprised at the earth<br \/>\nAnd the love of one woman<br \/>\nAnd the shamelessness of men<br \/>\nAs today writing after three days of rain<br \/>\nHearing the wren sing and the falling cease<br \/>\nAnd bowing not knowing to what<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(W. S. Merwin [<a title=\"Google Books: 'The Columbia Anthology of Modern Poetry,' edited by Jay Parini\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=GRU1ZIhpSiYC&amp;pg=PA636#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"note\"><\/a>______________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the video:<\/strong> Lindsey Stirling was a new name to me at the start of this week, until someone just sort of off-handedly included this video in a Facebook comment. (The Piano Guys I knew of, from the video featured in <a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'Midweek Music Break: 'Michael Meets Mozart''\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/midweek-music-break-michael-meets-mozart\/\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a>.) After viewing this a couple of times and wondering how to classify what she does &#8212; the style reminds me of Celtic Woman&#8217;s <a title=\"M\u00e1ir\u00e9ad Nesbitt's Web site\" href=\"http:\/\/www.maireadnesbitt.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">M\u00e1ir\u00e9ad Nesbitt<\/a> (I&#8217;m apparently not alone in this) &#8212; I turned to <a title=\"Wikipedia, on Lindsey Stirling\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lindsey_Stirling\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;an American violinist, dancer, performance artist, and composer. She presents choreographed violin performances, both live and in music videos found on her YouTube channel, Lindseystomp, which she introduced in 2007. In 2010, Stirling was a quarter-finalist on <em>America&#8217;s Got Talent<\/em> season five, where she was known as the hip-hop violinist.<\/p>\n<p>She performs a variety of music styles, from classical to pop and hip-hop to electronic dance music&#8230; Stirling is also a YouTube sensation&#8230; Her YouTube channel had, as of June 2014, more than five million subscribers and 675 million total views.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I watched a few more videos at <a title=\"YouTube: Lindsey Stirling's channel\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/lindseystomp\/featured\" target=\"_blank\">that YouTube channel<\/a>. I started to wonder what critics made of her. <a title=\"AllMusic: Lindsey Stirling (Overview)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/album\/lindsey-stirling-mw0002427648\" target=\"_blank\">AllMusic<\/a> summarizes her as &#8220;the colorful and uncommonly spirited classical, hip-hop, rock, country, modern dance, and <em>Legend of Zelda<\/em>\/<em>Elder Scrolls<\/em>-loving violinist.&#8221; In a review of a recent live concert,\u00a0<a title=\"Hollywood Reporter: 'Lindsey Stirling Fiddles with the System: Concert Review'\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/review\/lindsey-stirling-fiddles-system-concert-704996\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> says<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The <em>N.Y. Times<\/em> even sat its pop and classical critics down together to try to figure out who or what Stirling is. The pop reviewer was &#8220;puzzled&#8221; in &#8220;wondering who it was for&#8221; and the classical guy was &#8220;mystified,&#8221; but both pundits could agree that they didn&#8217;t care for it, finally settling in on the idea that it might be &#8220;study music for nerdy teenage girls.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I doubt that Stirling takes seriously such awkward, condescending criticism. (I <em>hope<\/em> she doesn&#8217;t take it seriously.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>[<a href=\"#top\">back to top<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Video: Lindsey Stirling and The Piano Guys, &#8220;Theme from Mission Impossible.&#8221; See the note at the foot of this post.] From whiskey river: Sometimes, When the Light Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles and pulls you back into childhood and you are passing a crumbling mansion completely hidden behind old willows or an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,426,74,5,251],"tags":[351,722,2314,2499,2959,3710,3810,3822,3823,3824],"class_list":{"0":"post-15765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-celebrities","9":"category-music","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"tag-ws-merwin","13":"tag-celtic-woman","14":"tag-lisel-mueller","15":"tag-robert-penn-warren","16":"tag-alain-de-botton","17":"tag-violin","18":"tag-alan-lightman","19":"tag-lindsey-stirling","20":"tag-piano-guys","21":"tag-ann-struthers","22":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-46h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15765"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18235,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765\/revisions\/18235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}