When you get to the top of the Big Dipper, the view you observe depends mightily upon the kind of person you are. Some see nothing but their laps and and knees and white knuckles clasped around the safety bar over their laps and knees.
Last time I went, I saw the moon and fireworks and my daughters and the sea. And sailboats. I looked around. I'd been on before. The view always changes, every time, and you always change, every time. But certain facts leap out. You can see the whole structure underneath, You can see the momentous drop just ahead and if you look back you see the anxious excited faces of your fellow passengers on this short journey and observe behing the dark cave you just left. In the distance, near and far, is the sea. Certain times you can see the lights of Monterey, across the bay and much further to the west than you probably pictured in your mind. You get these maps on the wall and you see a big indentation in the coast of California, right below San Francisco, and it says "Monterey Bay", descriptively. But when you pause at the top of the Big Dipper and see the twinkling lights of Monterey in perspective to a great deal of ocean and sand and people and lights up close, and it doesn't fit your previous image of the scale of the bay. It seems magical and distant and much further west than you would have pictured. But then, people walking on the Boardwalk take on a completely different character altogether. Up close they seem personal. Individual. One face at a time. Jostling with you in line for the cotton candy. Up here they are types and classes. Couples, bikers, latinos, white dad and family on vacation - their dog Spot on a leash. From a distance, they fall into cliche and classification. You feel superior. You are looking down. You see them, but you up above are not seen yourself. You're at the highest point of the Boardwalk, baby, and about to take a fall. And all along, this constant force of gravity has been tuggin steadily at the back of your shirt as your train climbs the stairs to the apex. You've been slowly winding up some sort of resistant spring in your positioning on the planet. And when you get to the top, the force you've been fighting will shift to one you've given yourself to. But right at the top, before that occurs, you exist for a short moment on the cusp and balance of opposing force, a singular moment of not-this, not-that that is non-intellectual and experienced in every cell of your body as immediate reality. A thrilling moment that feels like being free. A good moment, if the view is good. In our metaphysical journey, we too reach heights. It's a cliche as old as the hills. Yet will always remain because it is so good. Men who have scaled the intellectual heights of consciousness bring back reports and perspectives that are wonderful and enlightening. Even more thrilling is doing so for oneself, in a true and personal way. And the view is always good. And the moment is always exciting. But people do not live on the heights. People live, farm, dwell in the valleys and lowlands. The moment on that cusp is always brief. It is in the nature of things. You cannot take it out of context and polish it up and serve it on a platter in some new-age-y package, stir in sincerity and viola, instant enlightenment. The apex occurs after a journey, an effort, a climb. At least on somebody's part. Even as I rely on somebody else to build my roller coaster for me, I lean on metaphysical struggles of other men; even more I rely upon the linguistic tools and the mythological meanings of culture to construct my own meaning in life. When it all comes together in a moment of clarity, where things are revealed as they more truly are, and conceptualization of larger patterns fit old knowledge into new life, it is as exciting as a roller coaster drop. It is as good as it gets. And one fact that perspective brings to my attention, is that this is a circle. It has ups and downs, but in the main, it goes 'round and 'round and always comes back again. So even as I feel a rush at the apex of excitement over a new idea, and I also experience a simultaneous twinge of disappointment over the impending let down which follows so shortly, the fact that this circle will come around again gives me the freedom and opportunity and motivation to relax and enjoy each moment for exactly what it is. With the firm memory of this perspective to hold me throughout the ups and downs that I can see lie ahead. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
