Ode to Oriel

I went down to the sea last night (I'm sure Jonathon's Emily's got
lots to say about the seaside), and watched the sun set. Warm day,
balmy breeze, .. a clear patch of blue beneath some cloud on the
horizon that let the sun burst through just on setting,

.... and thought, "How did they do it, ..I mean, really *do*
it, .. ... way back then, .. think that it wasn't the sun setting at
all that was happening, but me, falling backwards off my seat with the
planet turning.? Falling, .. but not falling.."

But not so much even that, .. the intellectual 'knowing', ..as the
mindblowing struggle for the ordinary, to come to terms what it
*really meant* in terms of understanding, ... this immeasurably big
blob of stone, covered in water, hanging in the sky, ... turning..
When everything before was nice and flat, .. and easy...

A five year old today can easily understand that 'intellectually', and
take it in its stride, but surely back then, at the time, it would
have taken a savant of the highest, to come up with that one. I
mean, ..what astounding *leaps* of intuition were there! And would
have been called a nut for sure. Even then, ...watching the sun go
down, .. and the immensity of what was unfolding in that disappearing
light, and trying to think yourself back into the shoes that did
it, .. that was a tremendously humbling experience. And the price
that was paid to get there ( I mean here.) Now they're looked on as
old bachles, ..heaped in the corner of history. That's the difference
between knowing and understanding, the hacked and worn, ...
everybody's hand-me-down cracked old bachle (..take one off the pile
anytime, no need to try it for size, ..one size fits all), .. ...or
Cinderella's diamond-studded slipper of shimmering gold and crystal,
just for you, .. provided you turn up at midnight (or sunset) for that
bewitching instant of understanding.

And so we have it, ..geology, .. the setting sun, ... whilst the Real
Deal is actually falling backwards off its seat, ..but never seen to
commit this trick.

( Emily? Has Emily got a poem for Oriel? )



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