Re: Ode to Oriel



oriel36 wrote:

On Mar 8, 1:02 am, don findlay <d...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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? )

You know what ?,I quite liked that ,at least up to a point,so thank
you.

Allow me to return the favor -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3ddxOwjuxs

It is the Sun rising and setting that makes most sense to our daily
lives as our bodies respond to the great cycles that have gone on
through all the great geological and biological history of the planet
along with the magnificenseof human history in its errors and in its
achievements.Yet,modern imaging brings the Earth's rotation to life in
the most spectacular way,there is no right or wrong to it and that is
what is important.

I liked the reasoning which links the planet's shape with the motion
of the crust through rotational dynamics and the internal specifics
but such a proposal may take some time to make its way through and
will probably surface in a different form than I have presented it.It
will always be there for people to work with and even though the
moment I realised I could join planetary shape with evolutionary
geology via rotation remains a very private experience,I do not mind
if people accept it,reject it so long as they work with it or discuss
it in some shape or form.

I would dearly love to read about geological discoveries from now on
the way I used to and it may happen here again.

Well, ...I think it must happen like that, first, .. ..in the
understanding. The knowing by comparison, or the 'understanding' that
follows from knowing (or knowing-transferred = telling) is very pale
by comparison. And like a starburst fades, for us, when understanding
passes into knowing all we have is the memory of that, but we also
know that it was a beautiful thing, which in itself has great value
in 'knowing'. In the setting sun and the planet turning I always
think of you going on about experiencing the meaning of that. That's
why I can't imagine ('understand') a perspicacious fellow like
you, ..why you carry on about plates so.

Plates is rubbish. It's PT's false starting point, ..not the
starburst at midnight. It's the Ugly Sisters, ..stealing the invite
to the ball, and thinking that because they slap their faces with a
bit of lippie and rouge, wear specs like Dame Edna, and put on hats
like Carmen Miranda, that everybody will be charmed.

(Bloody Stuart in his lace and feathers, ... and rubber.)

:-)


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