Posted by giveawayboy on June 10, 2002 at 08:03:26:
In Reply to: Re: reaquanting with enchantment posted by john on June 10, 2002 at 06:39:42:
: I understand what you are saying. I think the energy, or majik is there. I've spent the better part of my adult life searching for it. But it is truly an uphill battle. At every turn there is something restricting it, squashing it. and most of it unnecessarilly, or in ignorance. Some may be content to feel any chi that comes up from the ground through polluted earth while taking deep breaths of poison air. But if you do those exercises in the pure earth, far from the things of detructive man, the chi is magnified exponentially. I mean you don't even have to do exercises to get the level of chi you described, it just comes by existing. I have tried to practice proper breathing at work and in town, but every breath is stifled by the noxious fumes of exhaust and dust, and the only sounds to reach my ears are the devil's chords generated by the beastly trucks and machinery.
: Stil I have been able to find the small slivers of hope and majik that persist there. Just as Bill said I've been able to see the wilderness inside the urban. But my question is are we going to be content with the candle flickers? Are we going to huddle around the tiny flames when we could experience the absolute conflagration? I am not content with any less. I don't understand how people can find this mutilated shred of hope and be content with that. It only fuels my desire to see the full beauty manifested. Take botany for an example. We can keep a house plant inside and barely water it and it may live, but who among us would be content with that sickly plant when we could cultivate it, give it light and nutrients and see the full splendor that it has to offer?
O.K. sometimes I wonder if there is some secret in breathing that you and John and Kumar and everyone else, like Rickson Gracie, knows that I don't know. I am wondering if it is something that can be taught, or if it is something that I have to learn on my own by breathing. Not asking for answers here. Also, I agree w you about chi and candle flickers. The only thing here is that I feel where you are a raging idealist, who wants to take everyone out to the metaphorical wild, majikal world. I am an idealist who is a trying to be a realist, knowing that that isn't going to happen anytime soon. So for me it's about seeing the ways the candles are lighting up the urban jungle. it's about going with that strength and not underestimating their mustard seed flickers. it's about doing what they did in Curitiba by playing upon the strength of many candles, to the point where eventually they had brought nature back into the big city. I am not striving for pitting the city against nature, or running off to plot of land and abandoning large communities for small ones. For me it's about trying to see the city in a redemptive way. it's about trying to 'be' among all the perceived hostilities. I'm not saying that what you share has no validity, but I am saying that we need a working plan beyond just all moving away somewhere. I see in cities more than a mutilated shred of hope. And to me this would apply, not just to cities, but to churches, or any cultural group. I think we have to have your far-reaching vision, but also at some point we need to embrace WHERE we are, and be with others WHERE they are. It's like taking someone great like Edith Stein or Bonhoeffer and putting them in a concentration camp. They at some point have to resign themselves to living there. It has to happen. Then their great vision can connect w that community, with that flickering candle. For me, my flickering candle is covered up by artificial light. It's heat is diminished by tarmac and glass....It's scent is choked out by trash and exhaust. But, that I can still see the flame is a testimony ot the faith of the candle. I had to work at finding it between the cracks in sidewalks, growing out of the sides of cement school buildings, flickering in odd places. I needed to find it hidden in THE PLANNING COMMISSION and in lots of backyards all over town. I had to find it in small groups, garden clubs, fish farms, etc. In every case I found it flickering. I am not ready to leave the city. I think there is validity in the flicker and I also believe that flickers can become comflagrations. But, it takes commitment over time. It's good to ahve a common vision too--that's why I like Jaime Lerner's model, which really involved the comunity, but for me it can't just be a vision of running away from the city. For me it has to be a corporate vision, rising out of the people in a city who determine to set the city on fire.
Affectionately yours, Bill