There have been times recently when I just stand there, outside my camper, and can't believe it: I am not in pain.
I am not suffering the relentless onslaught of hot sun, high winds, blowing dust, thorns and stickers, rattlesnakes, and rodents. My skin is healing. So are my fingernails. Even my eyeballs are recovering.
So soothing and green. What would be the perfect music for moments like this? The genre of Celtic/New Age would be a good place to hunt. No doubt, a couple of my (male) commenters will accuse me of going soft in the head if I suggest some of Enya's songs.
On a classic TV western episode, the cowboys were gittin' tired at night and ready to turn in. A new kid had showed up recently and joined their crew. The cowboys thought it was hilarious that he had a fiddle. He played Brahm's Lullaby for them. Surprisingly, they settled right into it.
That was really "valued added" for the screenwriter to combine two ideas like that.
But what about travelers? Shouldn't they also look for a way to "add value" by combining their location, its conditions, way of life, quirks, and pains with something else in the world -- a book, a philosophical idea, myth, or piece of music?
So I would like to suggest that the perfect piece of music for a traveler who has finally escaped the horror of brown landscapes and rattlesnakes and is being soothed by water, greenery, and cool shade.
Watch this You Tube video (for free): it is Saint Saen's Carnival of the Animals, The Swan.
Maybe it was the name that influenced me. I have kayaked in marshes in one of America's more watery states, and surprised a swan on her nest. The piano in the music is redolent of the soft pitter-patter of the kayak's paddle on the water. Just think of all the water that was there! Why, there are places in the world with enough water to drown in!
But I encourage the reader to beat me at my own game and suggest a piece of music better than Saint Saen's "Swan."
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I feel like standing there in the shade and sighing. Of course an Idaho motor-crazed-yahoo might go zooming by and wonder, "What's wrong with that guy?"
Sighing out loud. Here is another runner-up.
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Redolent. This isn't the first time somebody had an emotional breakdown after getting too much of the Southwest. Remember that scene in Edward Abbey's "Solitaire," when he took off for the cool trees of the nearby mountains after he had burned out (and burned up) at his seasonal ranger job in Arches national park?
I am not suffering the relentless onslaught of hot sun, high winds, blowing dust, thorns and stickers, rattlesnakes, and rodents. My skin is healing. So are my fingernails. Even my eyeballs are recovering.
So soothing and green. What would be the perfect music for moments like this? The genre of Celtic/New Age would be a good place to hunt. No doubt, a couple of my (male) commenters will accuse me of going soft in the head if I suggest some of Enya's songs.
On a classic TV western episode, the cowboys were gittin' tired at night and ready to turn in. A new kid had showed up recently and joined their crew. The cowboys thought it was hilarious that he had a fiddle. He played Brahm's Lullaby for them. Surprisingly, they settled right into it.
That was really "valued added" for the screenwriter to combine two ideas like that.
But what about travelers? Shouldn't they also look for a way to "add value" by combining their location, its conditions, way of life, quirks, and pains with something else in the world -- a book, a philosophical idea, myth, or piece of music?
So I would like to suggest that the perfect piece of music for a traveler who has finally escaped the horror of brown landscapes and rattlesnakes and is being soothed by water, greenery, and cool shade.
Watch this You Tube video (for free): it is Saint Saen's Carnival of the Animals, The Swan.
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| from wallpapercave.com |
Maybe it was the name that influenced me. I have kayaked in marshes in one of America's more watery states, and surprised a swan on her nest. The piano in the music is redolent of the soft pitter-patter of the kayak's paddle on the water. Just think of all the water that was there! Why, there are places in the world with enough water to drown in!
But I encourage the reader to beat me at my own game and suggest a piece of music better than Saint Saen's "Swan."
____________________________________
I feel like standing there in the shade and sighing. Of course an Idaho motor-crazed-yahoo might go zooming by and wonder, "What's wrong with that guy?"
Sighing out loud. Here is another runner-up.
____________________________________
Redolent. This isn't the first time somebody had an emotional breakdown after getting too much of the Southwest. Remember that scene in Edward Abbey's "Solitaire," when he took off for the cool trees of the nearby mountains after he had burned out (and burned up) at his seasonal ranger job in Arches national park?
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