Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00

Subject: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Peter T.
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 09:30 AM

The canoe slips into the early morning, quiet water and mist everywhere throughout the lake. The only sound is the occasional gloop of the paddle. I come out of the marsh into the open lake, but the mist pervades as if the lake were under a spell that some intrepid knight must break. Above the crown land reserve an orange grey ball is rising, and I am suddenly reminded that the Chinese astronomers knew about sunspots long before the invention of the telescope, because they would view the sun through morning mist. So it all becomes an oriental painting, with the distant blue hills, and the paths up through the winding rock, and occasional cottagers tucked along the water's edge. I cannot imagine that the cottagers are exchanging pointers on calligraphy or the poetic teachings of Wang Wei, but one can dream.

More strokes of the canoe, and the mist begins to dissolve slowly. The outlines of the forest come into view. In the near distance, a loon, like something out of a parks commercial, breaks the silence, comes out with that Hank Williams lonesome cry, and submerges. I stop the canoe for one of my favourite games -- where will the loon surface, given that they seem to swim endlessly beneath, and can come up anywhere? The trick is that they usually try one closeup look, and the next time they bob up in the next county. It will check me out. Everything quiet, mist rising, sun beginning to break through, and somewhere under the water the loon swims. A minute passes. We are in a Chinese scroll forever. Endlessness.

The loon pops up 20 feet away, black head, perky. We eye each other for a few seconds, then begin to exchange pointers on calligraphy -- he with his head of black Chinese ink, and the exquisite silver trail in the water behind him, and me with my clunkier canoe and paddle -- we discuss Wang Wei and the merits of different brushes and inks, and then he is gone. I give the canoe a J stroke, and behind me spreads a pretty good swirl and forked tail of water writing -- not in the loon league, but pretty fair calligraphy. Of course it is all in the materials: painting with canoe, paddle, water, mist, mountains, lake, and tips on brushwork from the reclusive Taoist loon.

He pops up again at the far side of the lake, and I can see the shoreline and the docks. The mist is gone. We bow to each other, and go our separate ways. Morning has come to the lake. Canada. late August.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: MMario
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 09:56 AM

The world is different in the morning mists. Thanks for bringing back many memories. As always, you open my eyes to forgotten pleasures.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Raptor
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:02 AM

I WANT SOME OF WHAT YER SMOKING !!!!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:03 AM

Morning Mist on a Lake...another realm altogether. Thanks, Pater, for expressing it so eloquently...I am there..smiling in my heart and on my face, at you and the Taoist Loon and the beautiful calligraphy.

katlaughingloonlike

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: tar_heel
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:05 AM

PLAY "MISTY," FOR ME!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Mbo
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:08 AM

No PLEASE Peter...no Wang Wei! My Art History II class was so gummed up at the end with all those Chinese artists with similar sounding names, and each with two different spellings of his name...ARH! On the test, I was just makin' stuff up..Wang Wei, Ko Xi, Han Kuan...3 dynasties and 6 kingdoms....plspoasdjfoisbvxhjcvgzyujhm^%!*!!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:09 AM

One of your very best Peter.

Spaw (didja' happen to see the Waylon Hereon too?)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:11 AM

outstanding

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Peter T.
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:32 AM

ON LEAVING MONK WEN-KU IN THE MOUNTAINS

I remove my hemp robe to head back to the city.
Leaving my teacher, rejoining the way of the world.
It's not just that I am leaving this man of the hills,
I'm leaving the moon in the pines.
These past days how we've wandered, taking life easy,
going right to the edge of the sunrise clouds.
Opening a window over the river bank,
From our bed we have watched birds fly on until
they vanished.
We enjoyed our meals sprawled on the flat rocks,
Lounged often by a roaring stream.
When the world is at peace, people do not hide away like this.
When the Way is followed, who would need to leave?
Brother, you have a fine position here,
And uncle, you are well on your way to becoming a monk.
Keep the path clear for me.
The way things are going in the wide world, I expect you will hear me knocking again before long.

- Wang Wei. (c699-761)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Mbo
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:42 AM

Silk thread...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Raptor
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:52 AM

PLEEESE I"LL PAY GOOD MONEY!!!!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 11:24 AM

I copied today's thought and pasted it into Microsoft Word so that I could print it. It was interesting to see all the green and red underlining, indicating places where the program thought it found mis-spellings and bad sentence structure. Proving a computer program knows absolutely nothing about poetic license. Thanks for sharing a truly remarkable piece.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Peg
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 11:25 AM

Peter T: good to have you back!
this is brilliant and rapturous...stunning. One of your best that I remember reading...

as someone who spent many a summer day (and night) with the loons on Devil Lake near Kingston, Ontario as a teenager...and one who took to calligraphy like a duck to water in a college art class, thank you for this artful bauble. I will treasure it...

and, um, *I'll* have some of what you're smoking, too!

peg

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Naemanson
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 11:27 AM

Silence,
The stillness is broken only by the occasional cry of a loon,
And the dip of my paddle.
I look to the east,
The carress of the sun on the breast of Mother Earth.
And think to myself,
"Too soon have I come home."

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: SINSULL
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 11:31 AM

Welcome back Peter. A pleasure.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Mbo
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 11:32 AM

The Angelus bell o'er the Liffey's swell
Rang out from the foggy dew...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: CamiSu
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 02:20 PM

The mist has just burned off and it's become rather too warm, but it was fun to read this and watch the river fog swirl around and be able to - almost - see New Hampshire. Thanks Peter!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Aug 31,00
From: Amergin
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 06:04 PM

It takes me back to about a year ago, when I was on the Clean Pacific Columbia (which is an Oil Spill Response Vessel). We were heading out of Coos Bay to practice some drills and the fog was so thick we couldn't see more than ten, fifteen feet ahead of us. We would hear the whistles of a dredge and a tug and barge, but could not exactly point out where they were coming from, until they were almost right upon us. It was a very hairy ride, which eventually (because the fog was so thick) we turned back to our mooring place next to the Salvage Chief....If I had been looking, I might have seen a faery or two skipping across the bay.

Amergin