Interesting segment of PBS about the Appalshop in Kentucky that was destroyed by flooding in July 2022. In recovering old film and audio reels from the floodwaters and restoring them they were able to watch the footage. Otherwise, they probably would have never watched it. Inflection points are access points.
https://youtu.be/Br1HMFIH2is?si=zIxQw4yg43bmXxst
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Back in June of 2021 I had listened to a talk by Rupert Sheldrake about pilgrimages. He was saying that tourism is the new form of pilgrimage. A lot of well-meaning people that go to various places either as a pilgrim or as a tourist must realize that there are things in that location that they might not agree with but go because of its numinous effect, or simply as a bucket-list event. People visit the Alamo for different reasons based on the various myths that are woven into its history, People make pilgrimages there because it is somehow sacred, laying flowers for those that died and not fully knowing why. The idea of going on pilgrimages, either for secular or spiritual reasons, is a "vibe", but is it a true vibe, and if you really learned what went on there would the vibe change? [Interesting that the Alamo will be a total eclipse location].
*** In the future, we would ideally be more conscious travelers – aware that we were on a search for places that could deliver psychological virtues like ‘calm’ or ‘perspective,’ ‘sensuality’ or ‘rigour’. A visitor to Monument Valley wouldn’t just be in it for a bit of undefined 'adventure', something to enjoy and then gradually forget about two weeks later; travelling to the place would be an occasion fundamentally to reorient one's personality. It would be the call-to-arms to become a different person, an 8,000 mile, £3,000 secular pilgrimage that would be properly anchored around a piece of profound character development. http://www.theschooloflife.com/blog/2014/08/travel-as-therapy-an-introduction/ *** We are also honored with a useful section on “redemptive fatigue”--the soul-cleansing result of pilgrimages and other acts of penance, undertaken either barefoot or in shoes that were, as Vigarello says, “usually made of one piece of leather.” You have to admire the Count of Flanders, Guy of Dampierre, who died in 1305; skillfully covering his bets, he left the huge sum of eight thousand pounds in his will to anyone who would walk to the Holy Land on his behalf. All of the shriving and none of the blisters. Job done. *** Through pilgrimage, cathedrals were great engines of mobility. An astonishing 100,000 pilgrims came to Canterbury in 1171, inspired by the murder of Thomas Becket the year before. As Wells notes, the mobility these buildings inspired wasn’t merely temporal. They were built to embody the celestial city itself whilst also transporting the faithful towards it. Moreover, pilgrims also made cathedrals into engines of the divine: St James produced just eight recognised miracles in his first thousand years. Nonetheless, by the first decade of the 12th century his productivity rocketed to one a year. Cathedrals weren’t merely places where God’s grace could be found; they were places where it happened. https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/march-2023/a-window-into-the-medieval-mind/ *** The Journey of Transformation: Santiago Campostello pilgrimage routes--a pilgrimage is a difficult journey undertaken with intention. There can be a "pilgrimage of the soul", a spiritual "Wizard of Oz". *** If an eclipse was an event in Sebald's The Rings Of Saturn it would have been in the form of a daydream. Eclipses are in fact a brief "daydream". It is a completely empirical coincidence imbued with the idea of an inflection point for your own life and/or the collective. *** Diary entry 1/20/2009: Obama inauguration. 2 million people make pilgrimage to the National Mall to witness history. At this point you are always reminded of the arc of the civil rights movement--from point A to this point B, but other milestones are approaching. *** Art Pilgrimage: Can you imagine experiencing a total eclipse at Roden Crater, Lightning Field, or Spiral Jetty, or even in Marfa Texas? They are "shrines" to which a lucky few can make pilgrimages. From Marfa, pp. 75-79: Marfa is also a site of pilgrimage for some. A pilgrimage is defined as "some form of deliberate travel to a far place intimately associated with the deepest, most cherished axiomatic values of the traveler."14 Traditionally, pilgrimage refers to a spiritual quest, but secular pilgrimages can follow the same structure as traditional religious ones. A religious pilgrimage is sacred only because its followers have previously defined the destination or journey as sacred. Hence, any journey can be defined as a pilgrimage, depending on how the traveler views the destination. To some travelers to Marfa, the place has a sacred element, whether it's the sacredness of the art found at the Chinati Foundation or the sacredness of the landscape. The focus of a pilgrimage may often be on the journey itself and not necessarily the destination. The longer and perhaps harder the journey, the more rewarding the trip becomes.
A diary of note, which I should investigate...
"Many school curriculums downplay cursive these days. Shame. Allen points to evidence that maintaining a notebook with pen and paper is best for processing and retaining information. It can stave off depression and act as ballast to those struggling with ADHD. It is tactile, a form of “embodied cognition”, another example of the superiority of slowness. A beautiful chapter entitled In Search of Lost Time honours Danish nurses at ICU units who started patient diaries to detail the physical changes and progress made by men and women whose sense of self had been decimated by sickness. Paying attention, caring, handwriting: this is love."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/01/the-notebook-by-roland-allen-review-notes-on-living |
AuthorLee Barry, Musician/Content Producer Archives
May 2024
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