Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Walking Diary with Sumac

I experimented with seeing things a different way today. The world without my glasses is soft-edged, mysterious. Model-based reality is subject to lots of fun - sometimes eerie - distortion. Today I tried walking looking over the tops of my glasses. This is not a recommended experiment at speed. Requires a professional walker on a closed course, but I did enjoy seeing things differently. When I wised up and steered sighted, sites I see every day appeared anew. The sumac in the distance looked like quotation marks suspended in the branch web. What was nature quoting? Was the sumac reciting? Was Mother Nature showing off her Shinto shrine? Within the sumac quotation marks was the wind strumming the grasses and reeds, nature's string section. The oak leaves applauded, the last trees with foliage to rustle. The rain drummed the tarmac and played percussion on the bleachers in the empty football stadium. The sumac presented the quotation marks, not as a request to see, but a call to listen. Perhaps I can hear better without my glasses.

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