It is true that trees can tell stories about growth and the change of seasons, that mountains tell the story of the earth and evolution as well as very individual stories about human challenges and failures, that the sun every day tells the story of an beginning and an end.
Landscapes also tell stories and some even tell very personal ones that do not emerge elsewhere but in the mind of the individual watching and thinking about what they see.
Staying at the Grand Canyon for this weekend and watching the sunrise and sunset I have to admit that this landscape tells a very personal story. It’s a natural story about life as an aggregation of contrast. It needs darkness to discover the light. It need scantiness to discover the richness, it needs solitude to discover companionship. It’s only these antagonisms that make life a living experience. One depends on the other and every one of us depends on both parts for an individual living experience.
The Grand Canyon is one of the most incredible places to get exposed to the narrative of a landscape. It might even be a very special place for people who somehow have lost track of themselves being a reflection of a scheduled and packed trip along the busy roads of politics, business and media.
What does this landscape tell me? It narrates a story of beginning and ending, about things in life I can’t figure out, explain or even slightly understand. It tells the story of recognition and respect and the one about a step to far that takes you down. It also tells the story about being by oneself as an existential precondition of self reflection and awareness. It exposes me to the undeniable awareness that we sometimes chose a dead end street at an important crossing in life and to the feeling of weakness and sadness confronting difficult decisions in life that are crucial and sometimes final. But then finally it tells the story about the sound of silence.
‚When the calls and conversations, accidents and accusations, messages and misperceptions paralyze my mind. I find a refuge in the easy silence that it makes for me. It’ s okay when there’s nothing more to say to me. And the peaceful quiet it creates for me keeps the world for a while at bay for me.’
Kommentare (1)