Thanks, Dan. Loved it! I can understand the connection between island/sea and the feel of the planet, perhaps stronger than us middle-of-a-continent dwellers. On the other hand, I get a lot of my intense feelings of planetness (and beyond) by going small rather than vast. I remember being a 16 year-old and standing under an elm and looki…
Thanks, Dan. Loved it! I can understand the connection between island/sea and the feel of the planet, perhaps stronger than us middle-of-a-continent dwellers. On the other hand, I get a lot of my intense feelings of planetness (and beyond) by going small rather than vast. I remember being a 16 year-old and standing under an elm and looking up at its zillions of leaves and feeling gobsmacked by the vastness of the planet. I'm still getting that dazzling experience of living on a planet from looking at the tiny: David Haskell's The Forest Unseen visits a tiny circle of land in a Tennessee forest, and does deep dives into what he sees throughout the year. That triggers it for me big time. Or Ed Jong's I Am Multitudes goes microscopic, and that too turns my head inside out sending me to planetary vastness.
Hey, I get that tree thing too!! Or some version of it. Not quite the planet vertigo--it's calmer, more slow wonder than big dizzy? But now I know where I got it from :) NZ's got good trees for it, but I'll lay under a tree anywhere. Did a lot of that in NYC parks. Hard to pull off in Shanghai, though. A Phoenix kid is always shocked they can get away with it, all those leaves. I'll have to check out the Haskell and Jong. Interesting you can get the feeling from *reading* about the wonders...I like that, too. Much love from NZ!!!
Thanks, Dan. Loved it! I can understand the connection between island/sea and the feel of the planet, perhaps stronger than us middle-of-a-continent dwellers. On the other hand, I get a lot of my intense feelings of planetness (and beyond) by going small rather than vast. I remember being a 16 year-old and standing under an elm and looking up at its zillions of leaves and feeling gobsmacked by the vastness of the planet. I'm still getting that dazzling experience of living on a planet from looking at the tiny: David Haskell's The Forest Unseen visits a tiny circle of land in a Tennessee forest, and does deep dives into what he sees throughout the year. That triggers it for me big time. Or Ed Jong's I Am Multitudes goes microscopic, and that too turns my head inside out sending me to planetary vastness.
Hey, I get that tree thing too!! Or some version of it. Not quite the planet vertigo--it's calmer, more slow wonder than big dizzy? But now I know where I got it from :) NZ's got good trees for it, but I'll lay under a tree anywhere. Did a lot of that in NYC parks. Hard to pull off in Shanghai, though. A Phoenix kid is always shocked they can get away with it, all those leaves. I'll have to check out the Haskell and Jong. Interesting you can get the feeling from *reading* about the wonders...I like that, too. Much love from NZ!!!