{"id":18454,"date":"2016-10-14T06:47:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T10:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=18454"},"modified":"2016-10-14T06:47:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T10:47:23","slug":"deeper-roots-than-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/deeper-roots-than-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"Deeper Roots than Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'Spirit<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “Spirit of the Demon,” poster by Edward J. Moran for the Studio Ghibli film <\/em>Howl’s Moving Castle. (Found on DeviantArt<\/a>.) The film — and other films from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki — rewards the viewer approximately in proportion to how little one <\/em>thinks about what one is seeing.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Such Silence<\/strong><\/p>\n

As deep as I ever went into the forest
\nI came upon an old stone bench, very, very old,
\nand around it a clearing, and beyond that
\ntrees taller and older than I had ever seen.<\/p>\n

Such silence!
\nIt really wasn’t so far from a town, but it seemed
\nall the clocks in the world had stopped counting.
\nSo it was hard to suppose the usual rules applied.<\/p>\n

Sometimes there’s only a hint, a possibility.
\nWhat’s magical, sometimes, has deeper roots
\nthan reason.
\nI hope everyone knows that.<\/p>\n

I sat on the bench, waiting for something.
\nAn angel, perhaps.
\nOr dancers with the legs of goats.<\/p>\n

No, I didn’t see either. But only, I think, because
\nI didn’t stay long enough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mary Oliver [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes; the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours, the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence, the sun growing colder like our affections, the rivers becoming frozen like our lives — all bear secret relations to our destinies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Fran\u00e7ois-Ren\u00e9 de Chateaubriand [source<\/em><\/a>, in slightly different wording])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

’til soon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even you, raw matter,
\neven you, lumber, mass and muscle,
\nvodka, liver and chuckle,
\ncandlelight, paper, coal and cloud,
\nstone, avocado meat, falling rain,
\nnail, mountain, hot-press iron,
\neven you feel saudade<\/em><\/span>,
\nfirst-degree burn,
\na longing to return home?<\/p>\n

Clay, sponge, marble, rubber,
\ncement, steel, glass, vapor, cloth and cartilage,
\npaint, ash, eggshell, grain of sand,
\nfirst day of autumn, the word spring,
\nnumber five, the slap in the face, a rich rhyme,
\na new life, middle age, old strength,
\neven you, matter my dear,
\nremember when we were only a mere idea?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Paulo Leminski, translated by Elisa Wouk Almino [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Montage with Neon, Bok Choi, Gasoline, Lovers & Strangers<\/strong>
\n(excerpt)<\/em><\/p>\n

None of the streets here has a name,
\nbut if I’m lost
\ntonight I\u2019m happy to be lost.<\/p>\n

Ten million lanterns light the Seoul avenues
\nfor Buddha’s Birthday<\/span>,
\nten million red blue green silver gold moons<\/p>\n

burning far as the eye can see in every direction
\n& beyond,
\n“one for every spirit,”<\/p>\n

voltage sizzling socket to socket
\nas thought does,
\nfiring & firing the soul.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Suji Kwock Kim [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Within eight years, using Tycho’s data, Johannes Kepler had formulated and published two laws that for the first time accurately explained the dynamics of our solar system, and thereby began the modern age in astronomy. The laws were as simple, once recognized, as they had been inscrutable before. First, said Kepler, the planets (including Earth) travel around the sun not in circles but in ellipses, great oval orbits with the sun nearer one end. Second, each planet moves not at uniform speed but at a velocity that changes according to its distance from the sun. Today those statements might seem unexceptional. But in 1609, how many minds could have guessed that God would design a universe using ovals<\/em> and irregular motion<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Something more was at work here than just astronomical training, hard thinking, and Tycho Brahe’s data. What else? In many of the great scientific discoveries there seems to have been an additional mode of perception that took up in the shadowy zone where pure rationality ended, a further faculty that helped point the way to a revolutionizing insight. The word “intuit ion” is sometimes applied but, like a paper label on a bottle, only obscures what’s inside. Arthur Koestler, in his intriguing book on the early astronomers, calls it “sleep-walking.” Einstein spoke in his own case of “the gift of fantasy.” As a young man of twenty-three, Isaac Newton suddenly glimpsed his law of gravity in little more time than an apple would take to fall from a tree (though the literal falling-apple anecdote seems to have been apocryphal). Alfred Russel Wallace got the idea of evolution by natural selection (though that wasn’t his term) with the same suddenness, during an attack of fever, after Charles Darwin had labored over the same question methodically for years. Watson and Crick found the structure of DNA using Tinkertoys, youthful cockiness, and someone else’s x-ray crystallographs—crystallographs that until then had not been correctly interpreted. In each of these entries upon the ineffable, something more was at work than mere cerebration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(David Quammen [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

A Meditation in the Desert<\/strong><\/p>\n

As thought to mind, so to the string
\nplucked, or touched, or bowed, the music is,
\na wrinkling of the air as immaterial
\nand brief as sunlight glancing on a wave.<\/p>\n

The silence in these empty lands is long.
\nVoice is as mortal as the word it says,
\nwith little time to speak the thought, to tell
\nor sing the quick idea of those who live.<\/p>\n

So brief the spoken word, the airy thing
\nin which are placed our deepest constancies,
\nthough by it love or life may stand or fall,
\nand in it is the power to ruin or save.<\/p>\n

The silence in these empty lands is long.<\/p>\n

Rock has no tongue to speak or voice to sing,
\nmute, heavy matter. Yet as I life up this
\ndull desert stone, the weight of it is full
\nof slower, longer thoughts than mind can have.<\/p>\n

Be my mind, stone lying on my grave.
\nThe silence in these empty lands is long.
\nThe stars have long to listen. Be my song.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Ursula K. Le Guin [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “Spirit of the Demon,” poster by Edward J. Moran for the Studio Ghibli film Howl’s Moving Castle. (Found on DeviantArt.) The film — and other films from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki — rewards the viewer approximately in proportion to how little one thinks about what one is seeing.] From whiskey river: Such Silence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18466,"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":"Maybe you're overthinking it... Mary Oliver, David Quammen, et al.: 'Deeper Roots than Reason'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,95,250,5,50,36,251,4159],"tags":[595,1852,2965,3028,3502,4419,4420,4421,4422,4423,4424],"class_list":{"0":"post-18454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-science-medicine","10":"category-art","11":"category-06_writing","12":"category-language-writing_cat","13":"category-reading","14":"category-poetry-writing_cat","15":"category-essays","16":"tag-mary-oliver","17":"tag-thinking","18":"tag-intuition","19":"tag-david-quammen","20":"tag-thought","21":"tag-ursula-k-le-guin","22":"tag-suji-kwock-kim","23":"tag-paulo-leminski","24":"tag-francois-rene-de-chateaubriand","25":"tag-studio-ghibli","26":"tag-hayao-miyazaki","27":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/spiritofthedemon_howlsmovingcastle_edwardjmoran_sm.jpg?fit=800%2C1131&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-4NE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18454","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=18454"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18467,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18454\/revisions\/18467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}