the answer is blowin' in the wind

Sorry Aloysha, I am not going to talk about music, not yet anyways.

Yesterday the weather was very angry, or at least frustrated. The wind seemed like it was trying to blow the world away and at the time this seemed like an excellent idea. I felt trapped in the details of life. I had to go to work, then spend hours doing homework when all I really wanted to do was go for a walk, in the wind and dancing leaves, and then curl up in bed with the The Graveyard Book. But I did not think my Professors would agree that this was an acceptable alternative.

I felt like the windstorm, angry at the world, trying to it blow away, destroy it. The wind has a freedom that is too often lost in everyday life. And I'm free, like the wind, like I'm gonna live forever. It's a feeling time can never take away. It's so easy to get sucked into a routine and have your life consumed by details. This goes back to the idea of contemplation that Aloysha and Robert Owen Hood have been talking about. It's not always that we don't appreciate the beauty around us or know that it's there, although sadly this is often true, but that we don't have time for it right now.

One of the problems with the modernity of our lives is how much it removes us from our world. It is easy to live out a day without any interaction with nature. Our technology, our cities, our advanced methods of transportation all make our lives more convenient, but in the process make it easier for us to take for granted things like trees, grass, the smell of a forest or the sound of water trickling down rocks. We have to designate time now if we want to experience this, have to go out of our way, and too often our busy lives make this difficult. And so we do it less, forget it, and replace it with television.

But there is another component to this, one I think was more related to my frustration the other day. I wanted to destroy because I felt I could not create. There is not any time in my life right now to devote to creating anything. Cooking, gardening, knitting, all simple acts, but each has a product. I am spending so much time studying and advancing my mind that sometimes I feel like I am not utilizing it. This raises the question is there a practical aspect to contemplation? I do not think there has to be, but I think man requires this, needs to feel he is contributing to the earth in a somewhat tangible way. There is a satisfaction in being able to look at something and know that you made it. Ultimately this is realized in art. Man attempting to perfect his creations, achieve a better painting, a more beautiful song, each reflecting his world, himself, his humanity.