Freckles on the Trail

7/18/2016

This lily reminded me of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem and of its encouragement for us freckle-faces to view our markings not as blemishes but as one of many “things counter…strange” whose source is from the one “whose beauty is past change.”

Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things--
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swíft, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dím;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise hím.

Here are other photos of freckles in nature, taken during this summer's hike on the Appalachian Trail.

3 Comments

Don Volent

7/30/2016 02:45:04 am

We are all aware, with few exceptions, of the current Pokemon Go craze. In fact, recently, this "augmented reality" game has been added to the warning against texting while driving.

Interesting.. Yesterday. Morning. South Portland, Maine. While walking to the mailbox cluster to get the mail, two young bloods on bikes stopped -oblivious of my presence but ten feet away- to consult their iPhones in a way that strongly suggested that they were on the quest for another Pokemon capture.

Fast forward now to early evening, in Bangor. Rebecca and Kai, our hosts, take me, Sophal, and Dominic to the winding bricked walkway along the Penobscot where three American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) paddle this way and that, eager for the bread crumbs that the affable population toss into the waters. But there's something else to observe here, too. Rebecca, Kai, Dominic, and a rather significant portion of the population are consulting their iPhones while walking, pausing here and there to say things like "Damn! Somebody took my gym!"

Watching this, it suddenly and delightedly occurred to me that this day's closeup witnessing of this new Pokemon Go craze was just a graphic illustration (a pun?) of what we, within the human condition, do quite a lot, and that is project, lay over, augment (though I use that word with some reservations) what is with our mental constructs. This is not new. In fact, to see the three eager ducks and lay upon them the net of an "Anas rubripes" is just another variation of this mental chatter that we are all prone to engage in.

Another illustration. EWTN ("The Eternal Word Television Network"). Catholic by upbringing, I was but a few years ago a regular viewer of this network until Sophal and I, in the quest to trim our budget, downgraded our cable service. This meant that I didn't watch the Red Sox for three years (and this worked out and saved me much suffering, if you know what I mean). But this early Spring, after seeing the new winter acquisition of David Price, I whined so much to Sophal that she -merciful soul that she is- finally relented and upgraded our cable package to once again include NESN and EWTN.

EWTN. Interesting. It had been three years, so I was returning after an hiatus. And what did I see with these fresh eyes? Well, I saw layers. Layers and layers and layers. Don't get me wrong. They were interesting layers: Saint This and Saint That, this Feast Day and that Feast Day, Rosaries of the colors of the rainbow, of crystal, wood, plastic, icons of every stripe, books and pamphlets on novenas, theological studies on the sacraments, polemics on the latest papal encyclicals and on various political issues, and just layer after layer of good rich stuff. And it occurred to me that I could endlessly occupy myself with these layers for an entire lifetime, and do you know that it also occurred to me (independent of my current Pokemon Go considerations, since the game was not yet even in sight) that this fascinating stuff could very easily end up becoming just another video game that one could endlessly occupy oneself with, going from Level One to Level Two to Level Five to.. And then I would never see -not "Anas rubripes"- but three eager ducks paddling in the waters.

Tim

7/30/2016 08:38:08 am

Re: the concluding "three eager ducks paddling in the water." OR "the three eager birds paddling in the water" or "the three /positive attitude/ things moving in the water" or "some animals not on land" or "some things somewhere else" or "something somewhere" or "no-thing-ness"?

Don

7/31/2016 04:32:20 am

Now Tim, after rereading your last response, I had to walk about in the cool of the day for a bit before I could give you some measure of an adequate response. True, I could just leave Things as they are, but I really do want to add that my first response to you and Gerard's "dappled" things was, perhaps, a similar wondering to Gary Snyder's (the poet) wondering in my current reading of the "thoughtful, affectionate collection of interviews and letters spanning three decades" of the poet Gary Snyder with South African writer and scholar Julia Martin (Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places) where he admitted that he was in the process of a long considering of the relationship between direct seeing and culture. In our case, direct seeing is the "dappled" things and the trio of eager ducks, while the culture is not only the overlay of Pokemon characters but of the "Anas rubripes" and the "no-thing-ness" as well. Form and emptiness, emptiness and form. Direct seeing and culture, culture and direct seeing. We need both. Or, rather, what is is both. Pray then, that we preserve the balance.

Trails & Transcendence