Last Sunday I took one of my wandering drives. My original motive of buying a guitar capo was soon forgotten when I decided to search for one of the nearby beaches I'd heard of. This plan was again forgotten when I saw a sign for the "Emma S. Clark Memorial Library". I parked, ready to explore this library when a path in the woods beckoned. Following this path, I passed by private tennis courts, and was soon looking across at a river with a series of stone bridges. I took a loop, using two of these bridges, passing by a proud father and his unruly kids, a group of serious teenaged girls who apologized for their barking dogs. I stared out at the water, a fragrant smell making me think of a California summer, and wondered how this whole scene could have been hidden amongst the strip malls, rude aggressive drivers, and dead-ends in warehouse/empty lot mazes. My whole sense of structure and hiearchy seemed turned around, inside out, like the spheres of Banach-Tarski, or perhaps a Mobius strip.
That night I had a dream that the water of the oceans spilled over and covered me up. Under water, were slowly moving clown-like people carrying out their secret business. I guess at some point in one's life, we become submerged. And we just hope that we have the tools to survive, to not drown, or become irrevocably lost.
2 comments:
Have you read Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami? There's a library in that novel that provides a beautiful respite for a troubled young man.
Jung says that water is an archetype for delving into one's subconscious self. While you may or may not agree, it's disorienting yet exciting to be able to breathe underwater in dreams. Unlike scuba diving in that you are very conscious at all times that you are breathing underwater.
I don't think you will drown. I think you will swim around and learn and grow. And then you will wake up.
No, but I've wanted to read it. My favorite two Murakami books were Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood.
Thank you for that, and I hope you're right. Long Island has been pretty tough. Actually, if I learned to scuba dive, it might make it (at least the summers) better here.
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