Into the Wild Reassessment
On November 9, 2014, I published a post called "Into the Wild" that described my metaphorical attachment to the perpetual motion and consistency of a river. Although consistency remains a top value in my life, there are certain statements in this post I would now dispute or readdress.
"Such is the ultimate from my perspective," I wrote, "stillness not in a pause to appreciate the present, but traveling ripples that are grounded without thought in the now." Today, I agree that a pause for appreciation is unrealistic and not ideal. Motion continues to entrance me; I connect with movement in both its physical and figurative manifestations. Nonetheless, appreciating the present does not indicate a vacuum of thought. Instead, thoughts and emotions are inevitable. The self controls neither feelings nor the words that motivate, discourage, compel, trample, and run through one's head. Today, I continue through my actions to model the movement of a river, but I recognize that the occasional winds or thrashing fish, which are both natural like thoughts and emotions, may disturb water's flow. Thus, the river's goal is to accept and travel alongside nature - and mine is to acknowledge but not be overwhelmed by my mind.
The closing line of "Into the Wild" was a rhetorical question that pointed out an inconsistency between my metaphorical use of a river and its role in nature: "Why then, does a river flow into an ocean?" Unlike rivers, oceans are not constant; they thrash and pound then quiet and smooth; they are unpredictable. Why, I wondered, would nature indicate that an inconsistent ocean is superior to a river and, above all, is the ultimate city water strives to reach? My answer to this question is that river is not going to the ocean; it only happens to arrive there. In this sense, an ocean is comparable to human death. We do not live to die; we live for the present yet always conclude with death. Once deceased, humans are remembered for varying qualities, and often remembered in positive or negative extremes. An individual's legacy is represented in nature by the unexpected crests, crashes and silences of the ocean, which is the river's gravesite. Rivers flow into the ocean in order to be preserved. And that preserved state, which is composed of more than one body's water particles, cannot represent the same consistency that was shown by the river when alive
…alive and alone with it's thoughts.
ONE BECOMES LEGACY OR MEMORY IN THE OCEAN
"Such is the ultimate from my perspective," I wrote, "stillness not in a pause to appreciate the present, but traveling ripples that are grounded without thought in the now." Today, I agree that a pause for appreciation is unrealistic and not ideal. Motion continues to entrance me; I connect with movement in both its physical and figurative manifestations. Nonetheless, appreciating the present does not indicate a vacuum of thought. Instead, thoughts and emotions are inevitable. The self controls neither feelings nor the words that motivate, discourage, compel, trample, and run through one's head. Today, I continue through my actions to model the movement of a river, but I recognize that the occasional winds or thrashing fish, which are both natural like thoughts and emotions, may disturb water's flow. Thus, the river's goal is to accept and travel alongside nature - and mine is to acknowledge but not be overwhelmed by my mind.
The closing line of "Into the Wild" was a rhetorical question that pointed out an inconsistency between my metaphorical use of a river and its role in nature: "Why then, does a river flow into an ocean?" Unlike rivers, oceans are not constant; they thrash and pound then quiet and smooth; they are unpredictable. Why, I wondered, would nature indicate that an inconsistent ocean is superior to a river and, above all, is the ultimate city water strives to reach? My answer to this question is that river is not going to the ocean; it only happens to arrive there. In this sense, an ocean is comparable to human death. We do not live to die; we live for the present yet always conclude with death. Once deceased, humans are remembered for varying qualities, and often remembered in positive or negative extremes. An individual's legacy is represented in nature by the unexpected crests, crashes and silences of the ocean, which is the river's gravesite. Rivers flow into the ocean in order to be preserved. And that preserved state, which is composed of more than one body's water particles, cannot represent the same consistency that was shown by the river when alive
…alive and alone with it's thoughts.
ONE BECOMES LEGACY OR MEMORY IN THE OCEAN
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